Arena Pro Swim Series at Mesa
- Thursday, April 14 – Saturday, April 16, 2016
- Skyline Aquatic Center
- Mesa, Arizona (same as Pacific Daylight Time, GMT -7 hours)
- Prelims 9AM / Finals 5PM (12PM/8PM Eastern Standard Time)
- Psych Sheet
- Live Stream
- Live Results (link will be posted when available)
- Meet Central
On the day before the start of racing at the 2016 Arena Pro Swim Series meet at Mesa, Ryan Lochte and his coach David Marsh, the head coach of the U.S. Women’s Olympic Team, sat down and spoke to media.
Lochte says he is planning to swim all 10 of his entries at the Arena Pro Swim Series meet in Mesa, but the 400 IM is not among those 7 races – with Lochte joking that he’d “leave it for the young kids.”
As the discussion turned to Lochte’s long-term plans for the 400 IM, he said that he and Marsh were still discussing whether or not he would race the event at the Olympic Trials, and laughed when asked if he wanted to swim it, because “it’s one of the hardest events.”
“His training splits right down the middle between being fast, keeping 100 speed, and endurance,” Marsh followed-up. While neither committed to Lochte swimming the 400 IM, the tone of comments by both indicated that there’s some trepidation not about Lochte’s ability to be competitive in the 400 IM, but about his ability to remain competitive in the rest of his schedule after swimming the 400 IM on day 1.
Lochte was also non-committal on whether or not Rio is his last Olympics, saying “I did say I will stop swimming when I stop having fun, and right now I’m having a blast.”
While Lochte, like all of the press conference attendees this week, said he hasn’t really been following other trials meets, the Olympic coach Marsh was more in-tune with what’s going on around the world. He mentioned that he ran into Kelsi Worrell in the airport on the way to Mesa, as she was returning from racing at the French Olympic Trials.
Marsh related what she was told by Worrell that it was “really sad” because swimmers were breaking French National Records and still not making the Olympic Team, and Marsh echoed that sentiment that “we need to have all of the best people in the world at the Olympics.”
Lochte’s event lineup for the meet:
- 200 free (day 1)
- 100 fly (day 1)
- 200 fly (day 2)
- 100 back (day 2)
- 200 IM (day 3)
- 200 back (day 3)
- 100 free (day 3)
So much for planning on swimming all the events he’s entered at in Mesa. Scratched the 200 fly this morning.
I’m predicting Lochte will swim the 200IM/400IM, and the 4×200 in Rio.
With the improvement (and return) of swimmers in some of his other events, the 400 IM is one of those events that weeds out some of the best swimmers before the race is even swum. Take Phelps for example…clearly has the capability of swimming it, and likely being top 3 at the Olympics, but what is truly the point of if wears him out so much?!? Lochte does have a different mindset about tougher schedules, but with the 400 im being day 1, which could affect the rest of his trials and olympics. Day 2 being 200 free, sure he’s likely to make at least the olympic team there, but there’s no guarantee he makes the top 2. He’ll need… Read more »
lochte isn’t making the team in any 100..
I could see him possibly getting a shot at being on the 4 x 100 free relay team.. but that means he would have to swim prelims to make the final team (unlike the 4 x200)
I think the US saves Adrian, dressel and phelps for the final of the 4 x 100 free.. then the fastest of the prelim swimmers gets that 4th spot.. I think Adrian and dressel get the individual spots for the 100 free
I think he will swim the 400 IM. Given the stacked competition in the other events, the 400 IM represents one of his best shots at individual gold. Also, he is the reigning olympic champion in this event, so it would seem somewhat odd for him to not swim it.
In my opinion, Lochte should train to swim a lot of events, work his endurance, and then pare the schedule down to less than 5 total races at Rio.
200 free
200 IM
400 free relay (prelims, maybe finals)
800 free relay (finals)
Sleeping on his fly though. Lochte has thrown down in it before, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him at 51 low at OT’s to make the team. 51.9 against Phelps untapered in Mesa during comeback #1.
This guy Lochte hardly takes a day off. I agree that even at his “advanced” age he can still make the team and medal in the 400 IM but would that ruin his chances in the rest of the meet. Another issue he needs to resolve is the 200 back and 200 IM Olympic finals being less than half an hour apart. We all what happened in London where he swam great but didn’t have enough to win either. Given that FINA isn’t going to change the schedule for him
(like the iaaf did for Felix in track and field) which event should he pick ? The 200 IM is extremely competitive and will be the showdown of the… Read more »
I think he best chances individually are the 2free, 2IM and 4IM.. he also would have a shot at the 2 back, but the schedule is rough with that and the 2IM
I think he ends up swimming the 4IM in rio along with the 2free and 2IM.. then he’ll have the 4 x 200 free relay (I don’t think he makes the other two relays)
Same thing with Thiago Pereira, it seems he doesn’t want to swim the 400 IM because it is too taxing. He will focus on 200 IM against Phelps, Hagino, Lochte, Cseh… time will tell if that was a good decision.
is cseh going to swim the 2IM?