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Cape Town - Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe says that Chad le Clos is one of his favourite swimmers and that he would like to go over for a 'barbecue'.
Thorpe is in Cape Town where he is speaking as part of the annual World Sports Values Summit for Peace and Development, and Sport24 caught up with him to see how much he fancied South Africa's chances at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
"South African swimming is experiencing a bit of a renaissance at the moment when you've got someone like Chad le Clos leading that," he said.
"Chad's one of my favourite swimmers to watch. I love watching him. At the London Olympics (2012) I thought his father was fantastic as well ... I just want to go to his house and have a barbecue, I think.
"It's wonderful. This is what's changed in world swimming. It's no longer just people from a few nations, it's people from all over the world."
But, warned Thorpe, South Africa should not make the mistake of thinking that they will return from the pool in Rio with medals aplenty simply because they have Le Clos on their side.
"When you look at medals, you've got to assume that the rest of the world is going for those medals as well so you shouldn't get ahead of yourselves in assuming those medals because they're tough to come by."
Thorpe, 33, won five Olympic gold medals, three silvers and one bronze between 2004 and 2008.
