BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- South African swim ace Chad le Clos came to the Youth Olympic Games 2018 and the former Youth Games star reckons he might have struggled to win a medal were he swimming in Buenos Aires.
The 26-year-old, who is serving in Buenos Aires as an Athlete Role Model, said on Saturday: "The competitors here are way better. I looked at the races here, and I would have got seventh in the 100m butterfly. It's unbelievable."
"It feels bigger this time around. Nanjing 2014 was really big, much bigger than Singapore, but I thought that Singapore was the best one because I was there. It's been good seeing the crowds, and the level of competition has improved tremendously," he added.
Le Clos won five medals at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore, namely 400m freestyle (silver), 100m butterfly (silver), 200m butterfly (silver), 200m medley (gold) and 4x100m freestyle relay (bronze).
He went on to the big stage in London Olympics 2012 and captured the gold medal in the 200m butterfly ahead of his idol Michael Phelps from the Untied States and is now South Africa's most decorated Olympian.
Le Clos is one of 62 high-profile Athlete Role Models invited to the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires with aim of helping the youth athletes get the maximum out of their experiences.
Le Clos is keen to share the mistakes and successes of his time with the next generation of sporting stars.
"I probably made mistakes," he said. "But I don't look at them as mistakes, I learn from every experience, whether it's positive or negative. The advice I give them is to learn from the defeats and the setbacks because they will come back during the big things."
"If you're winning your races then you're having drug tests every night, whereas before I'd had maybe drugs tests once or twice, but after 2010 it became quite a lot. It's important for kids to get used to them because it's part of fair play within the Olympic Movement."
The Youth Games 2018 opened on Oct. 6 and will run through to Oct. 18.
