Thanks to SwimSwam reporter Katrina Radke for capturing video interviews used in this report.
Ryan Lochte, 11-time Olympic medalist, reacts to USRPT, ultra short race pace training, and his reaction is zip, zero, nothing. He said he’s never heard of it. The question came from an ESPN producer doing a feature on Michael Andrew.
Lochte’s reaction surprised me, but maybe he hasn’t heard of it. Lochte is old school, a grinder from the Gregg Troy college of training. Of course Lochte is now with Coach David Marsh, famous for his short, intense practices, but even Marsh believes in investing in a base early in the season.
Marsh is covered in the second half of his video. Pay attention to his messaging on PEDs, performance enhancing drugs, aka doping. Doping has been a big topic this fall, and it appears it will be one of the three big stories developing into the Olympic year. Much of this focus comes via ASCA, the American Swimming Coaches Association, and its chief, John Leonard. Leonard is very concerned about cheaters slipping through the FINA cracks, getting away with enhanced performances in Rio and beyond.
What do you think? Is FINA doing the job of policing our sport enough regarding dopers?
Is this concern worthy of a collective push by coaching’s leadership? If so, how should they go about it?
Are you aware of any ASCA messaging regarding dopers? Do they have a clear plan they have communicated to the base of our sport? If so, let me know. If not, how can they do a better job?
You can follow Ryan Lochte on Twitter here.
You can follow David Marsh on Twitter here.
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
My vote is that is a great suggestion. I’ll seed the pot with some FINA diatribes for what that is worth.
Ever think about creating a forum on the website? There are discussions that happen on articles, then the old articles are pushed down and the debate dies. Putting a forum where people can discuss anything/everything in swimming would add to the site (unless you don’t want to take away from the forums on CollegeSwimming.com, but those aren’t the most active anyways).
Mel, a great topic to bring attention to.
ASCA – I take the view that they 1. Don’t have a direct mandate, 2. Aren’t very organized in matters broader than domestic swimming, 3. Have no intrinsic infrastructure to bring a platform to do anything beyond basic organization of the sport here in the US, 4. Have no partner labs or a road map to find them, let alone organize, in order to have a testing platform, and 5. Have no jurisdiction to do anything even if #1 a #4 are in place…and they never will be.
This is a FINA / WADA mandate. It is favorable that USADA tests athletes with more periodicity than other countries, but there are… Read more »
Forgive me for the mind-dump, but I’m hoping to generate a discussion on the topic of PEDs/doping and ASCA’s role in messaging on this topic……
I don’t think ASCA’s messaging is bouncing. I haven’t seen a bullet-point plan, talking points for VIP coaches, VIP athletes, or a concise release for media. Messaging seems muddy to me. It must be clear to be effective…. Moreover, there is no narrative, no personal hook. They must have many personal hooks to engage the swimming-base. If they have many personal narratives explaining the negative impact of PEDs, they’ll learn which hook works and follow through with those until they reach their desired goal….which brings up a final point. What is their goal? It is… Read more »
USADA tests our athletes at a lot higher rate than FINA does and I am assuming that other national federations don’t test their athletes at the same rates….Adrian Lochte Franklin all tested 10+ times this year and that doesn’t count FINA tests. The rest of the world doesnt have the same ethics and they probably assume that USA swimming would hide a positive result for a top athlete the same as we assume China and Russia would do the same. I think the real issue comes down to what is happening in track and field and cycling…..most sports fans now assume that the top athletes in these sports are all doping and this assumption I see this spilling over to… Read more »
David Marsh knows the deal. The reason the USA hasn’t done as well over the last couple of years internationally is because of dabbling in USRPT. And when Marsh, Bowman and all the other great coaches of Olympians start pushing the yardage because it’s an Olympic year, there is a reason. (Bowman never stopped.)
Lochte, Phelps, all of the top US Olympians do the work. They do altitude training and TONS of yardage to get that solid base. You shouldn’t be swimming that fast right now or you’re not getting what you need to be ready for trials. A few best times in November doesn’t mean anything in the big picture.
Swimming slow should never be your goal regardless of what month it is.
I actually think there is more to USRPT than many heavy-weight coaches will admit. I think it will be a part of swimming more and more in the future. Coaches may not use it exclusively, but they’ll integrate it into their programs….
Sadly, I’m old. I haven’t used it. My competitive years are over. However, I would’ve tried it back in the day. I was a grinder. I gained success by doing heavy, heavy yardage, but I think I’ve could’ve trained differently. In sum, I feel it’s very important to always be open to new ideas about training and getting faster. Thankfully we have a strong test subject in Michael Andrew. If he continues to improve into his 20s,… Read more »
Great piece, Lochte is hilarious as always! Personally I find the way FINA is handling the situation with PED’s in swimming is concerning and there seemed to be an air of frustration from Mel on the matter (understandably, this could damage his sport). After seeing what happened to cycling and now athletics, I can’t help but think that FINA is sleepwalking toward disaster (or are already there, I get the feeling that we’ll find out soon enough).
As for ASCA I am aware of an open letter to WADA, but not much more.