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Le Clos example of the Phelps effect

Updated: August 3, 2012, 9:45 PM ET
By Wayne Drehs | ESPN.com

LONDON -- Chad le Clos had waited for this moment nearly all his life. As a 12-year-old boy in South Africa, he had watched the 2004 Athens Olympics on television, saw an American man named Michael Phelps win six gold medals, and decided right then and there that he would dedicate his life to becoming the greatest swimmer his body would allow.

In the years that followed, he worshipped the American swimmer. He read every article he could get his hands on. He cut out pictures of Phelps. ...

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