How South African legend inspired Collins Saliboko’s Commonwealth dream

Collins Saliboko watched Chad Le Clos claim his 19th Commonwealth Games medal at Glasgow 2026 and saw proof that an African swimmer can reach the top of the podium. Le Clos anchored South Africa's men's 4x100m freestyle relay to bronze, becoming the most decorated male athlete in the competition's history. For Saliboko, Tanzania's lone swimmer at these Games, the moment doubled as validation and motivation heading into his own campaign in Glasgow.The 24-year-old has followed Le Clos since childhood, and that admiration has shaped how he sees his own path in a sport still building its footprint across Africa.How Chad Le Clos inspired Collins Saliboko's Commonwealth goalSaliboko's connection to Le Clos goes back to 2012, when he watched his first Olympic Games as a child. That was the year Le Clos produced one of swimming's most stunning upsets, out-touching two-time defending champion and world record holder Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly final in London."I love South Africa and Chad Le Clos," Saliboko sain in an exclusive with The Olympics. "Seeing him win against Phelps was awesome."Fourteen years later, Le Clos is still adding to his medal collection, and Saliboko is still drawing on that same memory as he builds his own career. Watching a swimmer from the African continent beat the biggest name in the sport, on the biggest stage in the sport, gave a young Saliboko a reference point that simply did not exist for him before."It made me believe it was possible that an African can get that high, that I can be on a podium," Saliboko told Olympic.That belief has not translated into medals yet, and Saliboko is candid about the gap between where he is and where Le Clos stands after 19 Commonwealth Games medals. But he frames the distance as fuel rather than discouragement."Seeing that is possible gives me that extra motivation to just keep going," he said.Le Clos's bronze in the relay was itself an emotional moment for the South African, who has built his legacy across individual and relay events since breaking through against Phelps.Saliboko does not point to Le Clos as a technical model so much as a proof of concept, evidence that the ceiling for African swimmers is higher than the sport's history might suggest. That framing matters given how young competitive swimming still is in his home country.Collins Saliboko's journey to the Commonwealth GamesSaliboko was born in Mbeya and raised in Dar es Salaam, and his path into competitive swimming started at nine years old in Tanzania. By 12, he had earned a scholarship to move to England, a decision his family weighed carefully given what it meant for his development."I kind of took off from there," he said, describing the move in his British accent, a product of the years spent training and going to school in England. He was direct about why the opportunity mattered given the limits of Tanzania's swimming infrastructure at the time.His parents saw the scholarship as a chance to access coaching and facilities that were not available at home. As Saliboko put it, they reasoned it was worth exploring, asking themselves "why not take this great opportunity and get better coaching."The move accelerated his development quickly. "Since then everything picked up, I started competing internationally," he said, describing a rise that carried him from age-group meets in England toward senior international competition.That rise led him to the Paris 2024 Olympics, where he competed in the men's 100m freestyle and became Tanzania's Olympic representative in the pool. Two years later, at Glasgow 2026, he returned to the same event and lowered his mark to a season-best 53.10 seconds. The time was not enough to advance out of the heats, but it extended a pattern of steady improvement that has defined his career since leaving Tanzania.Glasgow 2026 also carried added weight for Saliboko off the clock. He served as flagbearer for Tanzania's 12-member contingent at the opening ceremony, a role that placed him at the front of his country's delegation on the sport's international stage. Beyond the 100m freestyle, he raced the 50m backstroke and both the 50m and 100m butterfly, building experience across multiple strokes rather than narrowing his focus to a single event this early in his career.He is also entered in the men's 200m freestyle, with heats scheduled for Wednesday, July 29, giving him one more opportunity to add to his international résumé before Glasgow 2026 closes.Chad Le Clos becomes most decorated male athlete in Commonwealth Games historyLe Clos's bronze medal in the relay pushed his Commonwealth Games total to 19, the most collected by any male athlete in the event's history. He built that total across individual events like the 100m and 200m butterfly, where he first became a global name, as well as relay legs where his consistency over more than a decade has made him a fixture on South African teams.That longevity is central to why Saliboko points to Le Clos rather than a shorter-lived star. Nineteen medals across multiple Commonwealth Games cycles reflect a career built on repeated qualification, repeated fitness, and repeated performance under pressure, not a single breakout year. For a swimmer like Saliboko, still early in his own international career, that record offers a template for what sustained success in the sport can look like from the African continent.Le Clos's history against Phelps also has significance in Africa's swimming story. Beating the most decorated Olympian in history, at an Olympic Games, remains one of the signature results by an African swimmer at that level, and it is the result Saliboko still references as the moment his own ambitions became concrete rather than abstract.What's next for Collins SalibokoNext, Saliboko's focus will be at the 2026 Youth Olympic Games set for Dakar from October 31 to November 13, marking Africa's first Olympic-branded event, Saliboko sees a broader opening for the continent's swimmers. "I am super excited," he said, adding that the event should show young Africans there are real opportunities in the sport.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.