Ryan Lochte put on a very special performance for all those in attendance at the 2015 Long Course Speedo Sectionals in Athens, GA, staying underwater for the entirety of his 50m freestyle and taking the disqualification.
Although he was disqualified for passing the 15-meter mark underwater, Lochte managed to stop the clock at 23.49, a time which was even faster than his prelim time of 23.55 where he swam full stroke freestyle.
Lochte has challenged himself to swim a 50 of underwater kicking before. The video below which was uploaded to youtube two years ago shows Lochte swimming a 50 yard dolphin kick on his back in 20.8.
In this video, Lochte is shown swimming a 50m dolphin kick on his back, and clocking in at 25.0. This video was uploaded to youtube in February of 2012, just a few months after Lochte dominated the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_LP-Gf7A24
The fastest 50m fly kick that we could find record of was a 23.10 done by Hill Taylor with a full body suit. The video of Taylor’s performance can be found below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dDg1aFpG0s
All of the videos above show swimmers performing the task on their backs, however Thursday night Lochte completed the 50 on his front with a dive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OD0PgKgg10&sns=tw via @youtube
I was there as I had a swimmer competing. This Sectional meet should have been held for those SR level and collegiate swimmers looking to qualify for Jr. National and Nationals. Instead, meet organizers permitted other outside the SE Zone to attend..probably to boost attendance.(Club Wolverine) They were charging $5 for prelims and $10 for finals. I agree with the comment that Lochte took a finals space from another hardworking swimmer. He also scratched finals on Saturday, depriving anyone who actually paid $10 to watch him from doing so! A few years ago SE Long Course Sectionals was largely club swimmers and I think it should remain so. UGA had such a boost in revenue from last year’s Bulldog Grand… Read more »
Wow ai have been practicing my glide. I thought I was getting better but this has rendered me speechless.
So…doing 50s no breath is really not a big deal. We did it all the time training and I’m no Olympian! This is freaking awesome how fast he is. Shallow water blackout…while it’s sad, one can always find something to gripe about. Kids that haven’t worked up to this sort of breath control should probably not be trying it. Same thing can be said for kids that can’t swim at all…what’s next(?); “well Ryan swims in a pool and this kid that couldn’t swim jumped into a pool because he saw Ryan do it and drowned”. Is this where we are headed?
This sort of stunt should result in a fine, a deliberate act of breaking the rules. It is not showing respect to the final or other swimmers in the race. Rules are rules. The 15m rule was put in place to stop this sort of thing, plenty of swimmers doing this when unlimited under waters were allowed. I have seen plenty of swimmers taking up spaces in finals and just coasting through them cause they are “saving” themselves for other events also disrespectful.
NINJA….shame on you, blaming kids for drowning…saying it’s their own fault!!!!!!
Hang you head in shame!!!
I’d love to watch this swim. But not during finals at a Sectional meet. 100% waste of a swim.
I’ve seen Liam Tancock swim a 22:dead over 50LCM at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, UK.