Chad le Clos reportedly said he still has nightmares about losing to Michael Phelps in their much-anticipated rematch in the Rio Olympic 200m butterfly.
“I wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat over that race,” le Clos said, according to Independent Online in South Africa.
In Rio, le Clos finished fourth in the 200m butterfly final (video here), seven tenths of a second behind Phelps after famously turning his head to look at Phelps in the final 50 meters of the race.
In 2012, le Clos beat Phelps for Olympic gold by .05.
When Phelps unretired in 2014, he said he would never race the 200m butterfly again. But he picked it up a year later, in part because times around the world were not that fast and in part because of his desire to exact revenge on le Clos in Rio.
Now, it’s le Clos who wants a rematch.
“I want it that bad,” le Clos said, according to the report. “I just want Phelps to come back.”
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