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12x Olympic medalist and SPIRE Ambassador Ryan Lochte‘s Career was riddled with 2nd place finishes in the era of Michael Phelps. But he kept moving forward, racking up medals of all colors year after year. He shares the mentality he had that kept pushing him to reach for more.
Watch Ryan Lochte beat Michael Phelps head-to-head in the 200 IM as Lochte sets the world record in the event which still stands today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=racCSoBQjH4
We went to a very special practice in Geneva, Ohio: a SPIRE Academy Swim Camp featuring SPIRE Ambassador Ryan Lochte. See it the PRACTICE + PANCAKES with Lochte here.
I was an X competitive age group swimmer and my main rival was Mark Foster . All through the British Age Groups ,Nationals to Western Counties we would have a rivalry him beating me over the sprints and me beating him in the 200/400IM & 100/200 fly . Looking back it was good and healthy to race against someone who you knew would push you to the limits and to places and times that you may not have got to without the rivalry. It only gets you better times and more of a will to beat him, especially 100 fly ,bit like Dressel n Milak ,just not as fast .
Had the privilege and opportunity to be a Coach at SwimMAC during the Lochte years (a mere age group coach) and had opportunities to film him training and be on deck during sets and the intensity level he put into everything was astounding. Not one ounce of “meh, just not today” or “I don’t feel like it”. It’s rare for common folk to see world class athletes train up close on a random Tuesday morning during the lull period of a season (usually we buy tickets to some training camp session or something), but this man was working and his swimming IQ is on a different level. He was ALWAYS willing to talk shop and stop by an age group… Read more »
anyone else questioning the amount of ryan lochte propaganda we’ve seen recently lmao? did i miss an article announcing this? i feel like this is the 15th article i’ve seen about him
They are all clips from the same video.
“Something will pop up in my head. It could be like the weirdest thing. Like all’a sudden like I have like a jumping banana in my head.”
– Ryan “Jeah” Lochte
Both Phelps and Lochte had their demons, but to have both in the same era was incredible. Imagine if their careers did NOT overlap…we’d probably sing the praises of both (assuming Brazil incident never happened, and stupid doping things from Lochte). Lochte ‘could have’ had many more golds had Phelps not been in his era. Given both pushed each other to higher levels, but there’s no doubt if they did not overlap so much, Lochte would have far more gold at world and olympic championship finals.
Phelps, Lochte, Cseh – all pushed each other to be faster, smarter and be more human, respectful of each other’s hard work. Their IM achievements may not be surpassed or matched easily.
It bothers me how Phelps can be forgiven for his past, but we are not capable of talking about Lochte without bringing up his.
Is it because Lochte’s is more recent?
Yes, in that Phelps got to play out the perfect redemption story, replete with wife and kids, carrying the flag in the Opening ceremony, and of course winning golds on the way out. Felony DUI (Phelps original charge that he pled down to a lesser charge) seems way worse than being a drunk, harmless jackass in a foreign country.
The dude has 2 DUI’s, one of them underage and the sport of swimming thinks he’s god. All it does it teach kids if youre good at sports, you can get away with murder.
Lochte was also instrumental in helping abandon the myth that having fun and racing at your best are incompatible. His style isn’t for everyone but as a kid he was my favorite because that approach wasn’t really represented at the highest level. Athletes with similar dispositions were encouraged to hide that side in public view because it somehow meant you weren’t focused or determined enough.
A consolation prize for sure, but Lochte still has 3 individual textile world records while Phelps has none.
2
What’s his third one besides 2 and 4 IM?
200 back
and the 200im scm
Ooh, I did not realize this. Guessing Phelps might have a few more if he’d peaked in the same years as Lochte – Phelps was best ’07-09, which happened to overlap w/ the rubber suits.
I love Lochte and agree with other people that his transgressions should be easier to forgive than Phelps’. High speed, high BAC DUIs are a big deal. Better to tear down a sign when you’re drunk then tear through a tunnel going twice the speed limit.
We should acknowledge however that he only got second to Phelps twice at the Olympics, and had a few relay golds that relied heavily on Phelps competing at the same time.
I personally think he’s a great guy, but there’s only one swimming GOAT: Phelps.
You could just as easily say that Phelps got some relay gold because Lochte was on the same relay.
Ummmmm…
2004: 200 IM
2008: 200/400 IM
2012: 200 IM
2016: 200 IM
That’s without factoring in events that he failed to qualify for at Olympic Trials behind Phelps, like the 100m butterfly in 2012.