Ryan Steven Lochte (born August 3, 1984) is an American swimmer. He is a multiple world record holder and Olympic gold medalist. He is a 2004 Olympic Champion in the 4×200 m freestyle, Olympic silver medalist in the 200 m individual medley and 2008 Olympics champion in the 200 m backstroke, the 4×200 m freestyle, and bronze medalist in the 400 m and 200 m individual medley.
Lochte specializes in the backstroke and individual medley, but is also a freestyle relay swimmer. He is noted for the speed and distance he attains while kicking underwater.
He is a close rival and friends with Michael Phelps in the individual medley events and Aaron Peirsol in the backstroke races.
Personal life
Ryan Lochte was born in Canandaigua, New York. He attended Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange, Florida.[2]
He graduated from the University of Florida, and represented them in NCAA competition. He currently lives and trains in Gainesville, Florida.[3]
Career
Collegiate career
At the 2006 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships held at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Lochte won individual titles in all three of his individual events, setting U.S. Open and American records in the 200 yard individual medley and the 200 yard backstroke. He broke Tom Dolan's nearly decade old NCAA record in the 400 yard individual medley. He set another U.S. Open and American record in the 100 yard backstroke leading off the 4×100 yard medley relay for the Florida Gators. This time was faster than the record in the 100 yard butterfly at the time.[4] The record in the 100 yard fly has since been lowered under Lochte's backstroke record.
Lochte won swimmer of the meet for his senior year.
Other accomplishments in 2006 include breaking the 11-year-old SEC record in the 100 butterfly previously held by John Hargis. After finishing his fourth year of collegiate eligibility with the Gators, he was sponsored by Speedo, thus turning professional.
International career
Lochte made his Olympic debut after finishing second to Michael Phelps in the 200 m individual medley at the US trials. He also qualified for the 4×200 m freestyle relay team. At the Olympics, Lochte swam with Phelps, Klete Keller and Peter Vanderkaay to upset the Australian team and capture the gold medal in the 4×200 m freestyle relay. He also narrowly edged out George Bovell and Laszlo Cseh in the 200 m individual medley to win the silver medal behind Phelps.
Later that year at the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships in Indianapolis, Lochte won the silver medal in the 200 m individual medley and the bronze in the freestyle. He also won the gold medal in the 4×200 m freestyle relay.
At the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, Canada, Lochte won the bronze medals in the 200 m backstroke and individual medley, and was a part of the 4×200 m freestyle relay team which set an American record and won the gold.
Just two weeks after the 2006 NCAA Championships, at the 2006 FINA Short Course World Championships, Lochte won the world titles in the same events he won at the NCAA championships and set world records in the same events he for which he set American records. He won two individual events in the 200 m individual medley and the 200 m backstroke, setting new world records in both events. He also set another world record in the 100 m backstroke, in the opening leg of the 4×100 m medley relay, becoming the first man to complete the distance in under 50 seconds. He won a third gold medal in the 400 m individual medley, setting a new American record. He was named as the male swimmer of the meet by FINA.
Lochte (left) with Phelps (center) and Cseh (right) after winning the bronze medal at the
2008 Summer Olympics in the 400 Individual Medley.
At the 2007 World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne, Australia, Lochte won his first individual gold medal at a long course world championship in the 200 m backstroke against American Aaron Peirsol, breaking Peirsol's world record and his seven-year winning streak in the event. This was Lochte's first world record in a long course event. Lochte went on to set a world record in the 4×200 freestyle relay with Michael Phelps, Klete Keller, and Peter Vanderkaay. He also won silver medals in the 100 m backstroke, the 200 m IM, and the 400 m IM, making his medal total for the meet second to only Phelps.
Within a week of the world championships, Lochte competed in the annual Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool where he again beat Piersol. In the 100 meter backstroke, he beat Peirsol's other seven-year winning streak in the shorter of the backstroke races, edging out Peirsol by .06 seconds.
2008 Summer Olympic Games
At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Lochte won the bronze medal in the 400 m IM event, with Phelps grabbing the gold in a world record time. On August 13, 2008, Lochte was part of the 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay that set the world record as the American team finished first with a time of 6:58.56. The Americans were the first team to break the seven-minute mark in the relay, and broke the previous record, set in Melbourne, Australia, by more than four and a half seconds.[5] On August 14, 2008, Lochte won the gold medal in the 200 meter backstroke, while simultaneously beating the world record. 27 minutes after the final of the 200 m backstroke, Lochte went on to win the bronze in the 200 m IM.
2009 World Championships
Lochte swam the second leg of the 4x100m freestyle final at the 2009 World Championships in Rome and earned a gold medal when the US placed first in the final.[6] For his second event, the 200 m individual medley, Lochte won the gold in a world record time of 1:54.10 to better Michael Phelps record of 1:54.23. Even more amazing, he did it in a LZR Racer.[7] In the 200 m backstroke final, Lochte earned a bronze medal. Lochte swam in the final of the 4x200m freestyle, which won gold and bettered the world record set last year.[8] For his performance at Worlds, Lochte was awarded male athlete of the year at the 2009 Golden Goggles Awards.[9]
Best times
| Stroke |
Distance |
Time[10] |
| Freestyle |
100M |
48.16 |
| Freestyle |
100M
(Relay Start) |
47.03 |
| Freestyle |
200M |
1:45.61 |
| Freestyle |
200M
(Relay Start) |
1:44.28 |
| Freestyle |
400M |
3:49.25 |
| Backstroke |
100M |
53.37 |
| Backstroke |
200M |
1:53.94 |
| Butterfly |
100M |
52.84 |
| Individual Medley |
200M |
1:54.10 WR |
| Individual Medley |
400M |
4:06.08 |
References
External links
See also
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Olympic Champions in Men's 4×200 m Freestyle Relay |
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1908: Great Britain (Derbyshire, Radimilovic, Foster, Taylor) | 1912: Australasia (Healy, Champion, Boardman, Hardwick) | 1920: USA (McGillivray, Kealoha, Ross, Kahanamoku) | 1924: USA (Weissmuller, O'Connor, Glancy, Breyer) | 1928: USA (Weissmuller, Clapp, Laufer, Kojac) | 1932: Japan (Yusa, Miyazaki, Yokoyama, Toyoda) | 1936: Japan (Yusa, Sugiura, Arai, Taguchi) | 1948: USA (Ris, McLane, Wolf, Smith) | 1952: USA (Moore, Woolsey, Konno, McLane) | 1956: Australia (O'Halloran, Devitt, Rose, Henricks) | 1960: USA (Harrison, Blick, Troy, Farrell) | 1964: USA (Schollander, Clark, Saari, Ilman) | 1968: USA (Schollander, Spitz, Nelson, Rerych) | 1972: USA (Spitz, Kinsella, Tyler, Genter) | 1976: USA (Bruner, Furniss, Naber, Montgomery) | 1980: Soviet Union (Kopliakov, Salnikov, Stukolkin, Krylov) | 1984: USA (Heath, Larson, Float, Hayes) | 1988: USA (Dalbey, Cetlinski, Gjertsen, Biondi) | 1992: Unified Team (Lepikov, Pyshnenko, Tayanovich, Sadovyi) | 1996: USA (Davis, Hudepohl, Schumacher, Berube) | 2000: Australia (Thorpe, Klim, Pearson, Kirby) | 2004: USA (Phelps, Lochte, Vanderkaay, Keller) | 2008: USA (Phelps, Lochte, Berens, Vanderkaay)
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World Short Course Champions in Men's 4×100 m Freestyle Relay |
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1993: Brazil (Scherer, Ferreira, Souza, Borges) · 1995: Brazil (Scherer, Massura, Cordeiro, Borges) · 1997: Germany (Conrad, Tröger, Lüderitz, Heilmann) · 1999: Australia (Fydler, Pearson, Thorpe, Klim) · 2000: Sweden (Nyström, Frölander, Ohlin, Nystrand) · 2002: United States (Tucker, Marshall, Lezak, Keller) · 2004: United States (Brunelli, Walker, Dusing, Lezak) · 2006: Italy (Calvi, Lanzarini, Galenda, Magnini) · 2008: United States (Lochte, Lundquist, Adrian, Van Wie)
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World Short Course Champions in Men's 4×200 m Freestyle Relay |
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1993: Sweden (Wallin, Werner, Frölander, Holmertz) • 1995: Australia (Klim, Dunn, Allen, Kowalski) • 1997: Australia (Klim, Hackett, Kirby, Dunn) • 1999: Netherlands (Van den Hoogenband, Kenkhuis, Zuijdweg, Wouda) • 2000: United States (Davis, Walker, Tucker, Carvin) • 2002: Australia (Pearson, Hass, Dunne, Hackett) • 2004: United States (Lochte, Carvin, Ketchum, Mortimer) • 2006: Italy (Rosolino, Pelliciari, Cassio, Magnini) • 2008: Australia (Palmer, Brits, Sprenger, Monk) •
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Pan American Champions in Men's 4×200 m Freestyle Relay |
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1951: United States (Gora, Jones, Cleveland, Heusner) • 1955: United States (Smith, Yorzyk, Moore, McLane) • 1959: United States (Blick, Sintz, Rounsavelle, Winters) • 1963: United States (Ilman, McDonough, Lyons, Townsend) • 1967: United States (Schollander, Hickcox, Charlton, Spitz) • 1971: United States (Heidenreich, McConica, Genter, Heckl) • 1975: United States (DeMont, Favero, Horner, Curington) • 1979: United States (Goodell, Larson, Kirshner, Gaines) • 1983: United States (Larson, Saeger, Hayes, Gaines) • 1987: United States (Robinson, Jones, O'Brien, Witchell) • 1991: United States (Keppeler, Wells, Tippins, Diehl) • 1995: United States (Olsen, Davis, Berube, Burgess) • 1999: United States (Messner, Phillips, Howard, Tucker) • 2003: United States (Lochte, Goldberg, Lee, Ketchum) • 2007: Brazil (Pereira, Castro, Salatta, Oliveira)
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Pan Pacific Champions in Men's 4×200 m Freestyle Relay |
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1985: USA (Heath, Biondi, Dillon, Oppel) • 1987: USA (Dalbey, Biondi, Cetlinski, Oppel) • 1989: USA (Stewart, Jorgensen, Olsen, Gjertsen) • 1991: USA (Dalbey, Jorgensen, Hudepohl, Olsen) • 1993: USA (Burgess, Eckerman, Taner, Davis) • 1995: AUS (Allen, Housman, Dunn, Kowalski) • 1997: USA (Carvin, Malchow, Taner, Davis) • 1999: AUS (Thorpe, Kirby, Hackett, Klim) • 2002: AUS (Hackett, Stevens, Cram, Thorpe) • 2006: USA (Phelps, Lochte, Vanderkaay, Keller)
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