"For Ryan Lochte, fitting in usually isn't a problem. In Rome, he figures to be the guy out front."
Renewed Focus: Ryan Lochte begins his 'second career'
By MICHAEL LEWIS
Staff Writer, michael.lewis@news-jrnl.com
July 26, 2009
The Beijing hangover lasted for about six months, and for just a short time in the glorious career of Ryan Lochte, doubt took up some space in his head.
Oh, it didn't have much chance to stay long.
After the 2008 Olympics saw Port Orange's finest in the water win four more Olympic medals, life was pretty awesome for the 24-year-old.
He partied with models, signed some endorsement deals and showed the goofy smile he's known for to anyone with a camera.
Thing is, though, when it was time to get back in the pool in January, Lochte wasn't quite all there.
His first few meets of '09 were not up to his usual standards, culminating in "maybe my worst meet ever" in Charlotte, N.C., in May. And just a little bit, tiptoeing around all the greatness, doubt seeped into Lochte's head a little. His motivation was back, his training was back, but for a fraction of time he was, in his words, "kinda shaky."
But doubt was rudely kicked out of the pool in mid-June at a meet in Santa Clara, Calif., where Lochte showed again why he's the second-best all-around swimmer in the world.
He won three events and destroyed the competition.
"It was nice, winning again," he said in a recent interview, chewing on some after-lunch Laffy Taffy candy outside the Daytona State College pool. "Before, I was taking baby steps, trying to see if I was really ready to go, and race strong. That meet made me realize I was ready."
Now, one year after the Olympics that made him so much more famous, Lochte is about to splash onto the world stage again.
Beginning today at the FINA World Championships in Rome, Lochte gets to measure himself against the world's best for the first time since China.
It's one year later, but that's not how Team Lochte thinks.
Now, in 2009, it's three years before the next big one: London, 2012.
And Rome is the first step.
CAREER NO. 2
It sounds a little silly at first, but the three most prominent members of Team Lochte (Ryan, his father, Steve, and coach, Gregg Troy) all say the same thing:
Ryan's first career as a swimmer is over. It went from high school until last summer, when he upped his gold medal count to three Olympic, and six overall.
Now begins career No. 2.
"This is the second phase," Steve Lochte said, "and it'll be the best phase. He's only getting better from here."
Several years ago Ryan Lochte and Troy planned for this, and with this second career has come changes.
Lochte isn't training hard as frequently as he did; his yardage volume (the number of yards he swims each day) is down by about 10 percent, to roughly 60,000 yards per week -- or about the length of 600 football fields.
Instead of three difficult practices in a row, Troy now puts him through two.
Lochte's also about done with the torturous 400 intermediate medley, an event he and Michael Phelps brought new fame to with their great duels the last few years. He said after this year it'll be out of his program.
"It's a different time in my life now. My body's getting older and I can't handle getting the yardage kicked out of me non-stop, every day," he said. "I'm still as focused, but in a different way."
In this new stage of his career, Troy said he's already seeing improvement in Lochte.
His 200 IM time in early July at the U.S. Nationals was the second-fastest in history, behind, you know, that Phelps guy.
"And his butterfly is dramatically better than it was in Beijing, dramatically better," Troy said.
Much like Phelps, Lochte plans to focus on shorter races in the future.
And intriguingly, he's finally admitted in recent interviews that maybe his focus in the past was too much on beating his rival Phelps, and not enough just on winning.
In the past, Lochte had always denied he was thinking about beating the 14-time gold medalist.
A RESET IN THE POOL
In the year since Beijing, the swimming world has changed pretty fast.
For one thing, two other companies' products have surpassed the ultra high-tech LZR Racer that Lochte's sponsor Speedo developed last year and hyped as the fastest swimsuit in the world.
And Lochte's treasured world record in the 200 backstroke, set at the Olympics, was shattered twice, first by Japanese swimmer Ryosuke Irie of Japan (though his time wasn't allowed due to an unapproved suit), then legally by Lochte's other big rival, Aaron Peirsol.
"I can go faster," Lochte said of Peirsol's 1:53.08. "We both can go a lot faster."
Of course, at the Trials in Indianapolis, Lochte nearly broke that 200 IM record, missing by .013, so he may get two world records in Rome.
"When you're that close to a world record, I don't know how you can not think about it," Troy said.
But refreshingly, there are some things that haven't changed for Lochte.
He still likes pulling slightly surprising stunts, like wearing black Clark Kent-style glasses around the pool deck in Indianapolis, even though his vision is perfect.
And the wide-eyed kid is still liable to say anything, which is why he's become a favorite of the national media. Asked about the suit controversy recently by the Miami Herald, he deadpanned, "I try not to pay much attention to the whole suit discussion unless they say my suit is banned. Then I won't wear asuit at all."
Still, the World Championships will be a different kind of meet for Lochte. He's swimming five events (the 200 and 400 IMs, 200 back, 4x100 free relay and 4x200 free relay), but none of them against Phelps.
The two will be teammates on two relays, but no individual duels, and interestingly it was Lochte who took their last head-to-head meeting, in the 100 breaststroke BACKSTROKE in Santa Clara.
For the most competitive swimmers in the world, this is a new beginning, the first step toward London.
"We'll see where everybody is," Lochte said. "Who's gotten faster, who's gotten slower. Then you can see where you fit in."
For Ryan Lochte, fitting in usually isn't a problem. In Rome, he figures to be the guy out front.
FINA World Championships
WHEN: Today-Aug. 2
WHERE: Rome
TV: Ch. 2 (NBC); coverage begins at noon Sunday, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2
ONLINE COVERAGE: Begins every day at noon at swimnetwork.com and universalsports.com
Ryan Lochte's Finals Schedule*
4x100 free relay: Today
200 intermediate medley: Wednesday
200 backstroke: Thursday
4x200 free relay: July 31
400 intermediate medley: Aug. 2
* Lochte must qualify in all five events but is expected to do so.
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