Ryan Lochte injured his leg in warm-ups on Saturday at the 2014 Mesa Grand Prix and was forced to scratch out of finals of the 100 backstroke. He was slotted to be the 4th seed in that race and swim out of lane 6, and interestingly his lane was filled by Michael Andrew, who was 10th out of prelims, rather than Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or, who was 9th in prelims.
Lochte stuck around on deck to sign autographs throughout the finals session.
Ryan Lochte’s coach David Marsh described the injury as not that serious, saying that something “didn’t feel right” in warm-up. Marsh said that Lochte’s hamstring felt tight after the morning prelims session, too tight, and they didn’t want to risk injury. While a relief to Team USA fans that it was not directly pain in his left knee where he injured his ACL and MCL in late 2013, it could be indirectly related and part of the comeback process.
Either way, it sounds as though it’s more of a precautionary holdout than anything, so don’t expect this to cost Lochte much in the way of training time.
Sorry that ryan couldn’t swim tonite….but no big surprise his coming to finals and signing autographs. Speedo hosted a clinic for us with ryan as a way to promote drowning prevention and our infant aquatics program. He was just terrific….so humble and encouraging. Such a great example for our sport. We reached a lot of swimmers that weekend and hopefully have saved some lives.
Smart move, that knee and hamstring are precious and any leg probs at all will put undue strain on that knee.
glad it is nothing too serious