Ryan Lochte: Living in the Moment
Tara Koenke, Photo Editor
Ryan Lochte: Living in the Moment
March Beauboeuf, Feature Writer
When Ryan Lochte first moved to Florida he met his nemesis, an 11-year old kid named Brent Arckey. For three years Arckey owned Lochte until one evening after yet another loss in a junior championship meet. During the ride home, Ryan’s father, Steve Lochte, noticed his son’s downcast demeanor and asked what was wrong. “I lost,” said Ryan. “Well what are you going to do about it?” asked his father. “I’m never going to let that happen again.”
And he didn’t. At that moment a superstar athlete was not made, but an important part of his competitive psyche was forged as he embraced the power of his mind to help him overcome physical barriers. Similarly, when Ryan’s weakness as an underwater kicker was exposed in his first two years at the University of Florida, he simply set his mind on improving his technique. “My junior year I said, ‘I need to become a better kicker,’ and just like that I became one of the world’s best.”
But don’t just take Ryan Lochte’s word for it. At the 2010 Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) Short Course World Championships in Dubai, Lochte became the first individual in history to collect seven medals. He also became the first person to set a world record without the full-length body suits that caused so many benchmarks to fall in the Beijing Olympics. Because the short course pool is half the length of a regular pool (25 meters as opposed to 50) more time is spent kicking underwater. This performance helped Lochte eclipse his new rival, Michael Phelps, on the way to being named World and American Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine and Best Male Swimmer by FINA Aquatics World Magazine.
Ryan moved to Port Orange at age 11 when father Steve and mother Ileana took over the Daytona Beach Speed swim team. A middle child with two older sisters and two younger brothers, Ryan’s mother often kicked the easily distracted youth out of practice. It was while serving one of these detentions that he met close friend Kyle Deery, now an account executive at U.S. Masters Swimming. After they both had been dismissed, they spent the rest of the practice simulating a rain forest in the locker room by turning on all the showers. As the friendship blossomed over the next five years, Deery began to see the competitive traits that mark Ryan’s success. He tells a story of how one day, between practices, he and Ryan invented an obstacle course involving a pool, a fence, two bicycles, and laps around the house. Competition was fun, no matter what the format.
Lochte credits his speed in the pool to his ideal strokes, and he credits his mother for teaching him at a young age, “I have a natural feel for the water. I have a natural perfect stroke that I developed as a kid. When I was younger I wasn’t doing a lot of yardage, I was just focusing on my stroke. I got my strokes from her, and it just carried on.” It is this dichotomy that defined Ryan's early development. Although he wasn’t grinding out laps in the pool every day, he had taken the time to learn and perfect the techniques that still serve him. For Lochte, the time he spent in Port Orange surfing, skateboarding and playing basketball were an important factor in keeping his interest in swimming, “You see a lot of young kids, nationally ranked, who are really good, and they are so young that by the time they get to college they burn out. It’s not fun for them anymore, and they end up quitting. For me, doing all those different sports and then finally realizing later in life that swimming was something I could excel in made all the difference.”
Lochte’s famous languor belies the desire that has driven him to the top of his sport. With six Olympic medals in two Games (three gold, two silver, and one bronze), and over fifty medals in major international competitions, he has already had an enviable career. However, these accomplishments do not impact his training for the 2011 World Aquatic Championships next month. Part of Lochte’s mental strength comes from his being in the moment. He doesn’t regard past achievements or failures too highly, and he doesn’t anticipate future results. In describing his attitude towards competing against Phelps, “At the end of the year you have one of three championships: the World Championship, the Pan-Pacific Championship, or the Olympics. You train all year for that one championship meet. Right after that meet I start a whole new year. No matter if I beat Phelps a hundred times, or if everyone declares me the world’s greatest swimmer, I put myself right after that meet at the bottom.”
Ryan likes to relax before a race by not thinking too much about it and is well-known for his disarming, pre-race chattiness. “I never think about swimming faster, I never think about my race, and I never think about a time. All I do is think about racing the people in the pool at that time. If I thought about the times I need it would make me slower.” At the 2010 Pan-Pacific Championships, Lochte turned in a Phelpsian performance gaining six gold medals. But 2011 is a clean slate that requires him to build up his performance to a peak display in July. After the event, he will give his medals to his parents, and focus on building himself up for the 2012 London Games. No stranger to injury before big races, his toughness is legendary, world records have fallen after a fractured foot and even severe sickness brought on by Beijing tap water couldn’t keep him from competing for his country.
Lochte is often described by friends and family as living in the moment. But he does give some consideration for his future. Now living in Gainesville, he’s ready to move on after the 2012 Olympics, possibly to California. Eight years in a college town is enough. And while he is single, ladies might find it difficult to get between him and the water. Ryan intends to continue his training to at least the 2016 Games, and has put no limit on his time in the sport, “Now I want to get to the point where I am regarded as one of the best swimmers that ever lived. For that I need to do something special, something like what Michael did.” For someone like Ryan Lochte, thinking it just might make it so.
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