FEATURE
Biblical history tells us that Lazarus was raised from the dead after four days. In sporting terms, South African swimmer Calvyn Justus makes that comeback look like a fleeting moment in time.
The SA Swimming Championships wrapped up in Gqeberha mid-April and after describing it as a“ crazy week with mixed emotions”, he’ d not only booked a place on Team SA’ s squad for the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, but also won the 50m butterfly title on only the second occasion he’ s raced that event. It was a first national title in a decade.
His Scotland spot came after his 21.97-second time in the 50m freestyle heats and to win the butterfly title, he beat‘ old’ friend and longtime teammate Chad le Clos to the wall in a time of 26.38 seconds.
These Games will be his third, having swum in 2014( also Glasgow) and 2018( Gold Coast) but“ these will be the first Games where I qualified as an individual, the last two were in the relay events”.
It was in the warm-down pool in Gold Coast when he was contemplating stepping away from the sport that he met Chase Bloch, assistant coach to Dave Salo at the Trojan team in California.
“ I told him I’ d lost my passion and he said I should come try swimming with the Trojans as they do things differently and I thought, why not, and it was almost immediately that I re-found my love for swimming and thought I may even try and qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.”
The Covid-19 pandemic proved a curveball though, and he was soon left without access to a pool and then“ Dave Salo left for Arizona so I was left without a pool or a coach for more than a year”.
Coach soon turned to couch / office desk and swimming to designing.
“ I’ d already been dabbling in fashion design, teaching myself, learning programmes, doing courses etc during my transition from swimming.
“ I was ending up sitting at my desk for 10 hours a day, probably in a pretty bad posture,” he reflects.
Something had to give, and in Justus’ case it was his back.“ I ended up herniating two or three discs but the main issue was that my sciatic nerve was pinched, almost completely paralysing my right side.”
The result was devastating.
“ I spent almost a year being bedridden, I couldn’ t walk or do anything. My partner Courtney [ Watts ] had to help me with the simplest of chores like tie my shoelaces, brush my teeth.”
There was also the heartbreak of losing his father while he was bedridden. For Justus, going from an Olympic athlete with total control and awareness of his body made him realise just how fortunate he’ d been to use it to its fullest.
He also lost around 20kg of muscle, but while his body was restricted, his brain was free to dream and the idea of perhaps competing in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, his second home,“ would be a full-circle moment”.
And so the year-long comeback, which puts Lazarus into the shadows, began.
He met a young coach, Sean Kao at ASP( Aquatic Sports Performance) and immediately loved his approach, even though he was more a strength and conditioning coach than a swimming coach.
“ He just approached swimming from a totally different angle, people started noticing, and now we have more than 10 great swimmers. April this year will be the anniversary of him training me and it’ s been pretty special – every time I’ ve raced this year. Last year I was swimming 23.5 in the 50m free, this year I swam 21.9 at Commonwealth trials, so we’ re just getting faster and faster.”
Not only is his swimming flourishing again, but so is his design work.
“ When I came back to swimming after five years, I very much still wanted to pursue the fashion side, so right now I’ m busy with a startup called Intra along with Romeo Beckham [ son of football legend David ] and Justin Saul … the three of us are building a sports brand to disrupt the sporting world with a new, more authentic, community-based approach.
“ Our goal is to build a community around Intra, bring people together in the world of sport and get them to use their bodies.”
Reflecting on his time back in SA for Nationals, Justus says it was great coming back.
“ I saw old faces who were teammates and are now coaches! And it’ s so inspiring to see how much new talent we have coming through and that as such a small country, we’ re still a force in world swimming. We had a two-day training camp as the national team and I met everyone which was great.”
As one of SA sport’ s great comebacks gathers momentum, what’ s on the Calvyn calendar?
“ After Commonwealth Games it will probably be Pan Pacs which is in California, and Intra’ s official launch is in June …
“ This whole new second wave of my career is about enjoying myself and making the most of the abilities I was born with and never taking that for granted!”
The ultimate goal for now will be the 2028 Olympics.“ Step one was making the Commonwealth Games team. Oh, and another full circle at nationals was racing old teammate and friend Chad [ Le Clos ] in the 50m fly final. I just feel extremely fulfilled by this week in South Africa.”
It feels like there are still a few full-circle moments waiting for“ Comeback Calvyn”.
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Filmed by @ sidkao www. modernathlete. co. za 11