200m Back

200m back is obviously Ryan's best event in Long Course. He won gold in Beijing and holds the world record.

Who will possibly challenge him in 2009 in making the U.S. team for the World Championships? Based on the the results at the 2008 Olympic trials and other recent news, here are 5 swimmers to watch for this event:

1. Aaron Peirsol
2. Michael Phelps
3. Tyler Clary
4. Rex Tullius
5. Nick Thoman

Peirsol is obvious. His success in this event is evident, and his times over the past 2 years have been equal to or slightly greater than Ryan's. In thinking about the swimmer vs. athlete issue for LC success, it seems that Aaron Peirsol is more of a swimmer than an athlete. Aaron always seems to pull ahead of Ryan during the swimming part of the race and Ryan seems to pull ahead of Aaron during the turns/walls and on overall endurance. If it is true that better swimmers beat better athletes in LC events, then Aaron would seem to have the edge. However, swimming experts say that 200 back is the hardest event on the swimmer's legs and thus endurance and athleticism seem to be a key components. It may be that the "swimmer vs. athlete" maxim does not apply to 200m back. Interesting to think about.

Phelps has indicated recently he may want to swim the 200m back. I say bring it on. MP's involvment in this event would surely provide Ryan with plenty of additional incentive to work hard and improve. It would be so exciting to see Ryan and Michael go head to head in the 200 back. I definitely think Ryan can win.

The other three guys - Clary, Tullius and Thoman - are really talented and very interesting prospects because they are so young. They could conceivably improve in this event over the next 3.5 yrs as much as Ryan did from 2004 to 2008. According to http://www.swimrankings.net/, at the 2004 Olympic trials, Ryan did not even swim 200m back. In fact, his best time in 2004 was 2:02.21. Ryan first swam 200 back in an international LC competition at the 2005 World Championships, where he won a bronze with a time of 1:57.00. Thus, from 2004 to now, Ryan dropped more than 8 seconds off his time down to the current WR of 1:53.94. Amazing!!

Can Clary, Tullius or Thoman do the same? It's certainly possible. It's going to be difficult to assess the progress of Tullius and Clary over the next several months given that they are in college and swimming mostly SC yards. Nevertheless, they are both capable of huge improvement, as is Thoman (who was training at Longhorn Aquatics with Peirsol but recently moved to Florida), and thus it will be interesting to watch. Tullius is at Florida and trains with Ryan so they should be able to push each other quite a bit. Thoman seems to be more of a sprinter, but if he concentrates on 200 back he could be a threat.

If I had to bet on one of them, I'd put money on Clary. He seems to be better at the more grueling races and he came in 3rd in the 200 back at the Olympic trials. Tyler is training hard. GMM's recent interview with him was very interesting. It won't embed here for some reason but can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzJOazHKxfI

Another interesting question is whether Ryan will continue to improve in this event. As indicated above, from 2004 to 2008, Ryan improved his time by more than 8 seconds. Peirsol, on the other hand, placed first in the 200 back at the Athens Olympics with a time of 1:54.95 and his best time now is 1:54.32, an improvement of only 0.63. The question is whether Ryan will continue to improve at the same rate as the last four years or if his times have leveled off like Peirsol's.

Long Course vs. Short Course

I read an interesting quote from Darian Townsend about the difference between LC and SC swimming: “Short course swimming is for athletes. Long course swimming is for swimmers."**

Ryan is often referred to as a brilliant SC swimmer. He's had some huge successes in LC, particularly the WR in the 200m back, but not as much success as he's had in SC races, where he's arguably the best in the world. Does this mean Ryan is more of an athlete than a swimmer? Is this something Ryan can change to become more successful in LC? Would he even want to change this?

It seems to me that the most successful LC swimmer, Michael Phelps, is both a gifted swimmer and a great athlete. I don't know anything about the technical aspects of swimming, and have heard that Ryan's strokes are already excellent if not perfect, but am wondering if he concentrated his efforts on improving his swimming technique, then maybe he could surpass Phelps in some LC events. I mean if Ryan is a better athlete than MP, as evidenced by his greater SC success, then couldn't he do better in LC if he improved his swimming technique?

My analysis is probably overly simplistic, and may not apply across the board to all LC events, but I thought it was interesting to think about.

**Source for quote by Darian Townsend, made on 12/21/08 (or 21/12/08 if you're outside the U.S.) at http://www.floswimming.org/blogs/blogger/dtrain/5416-finishing-up-2008-with-a-bang

Darian is from South Africa and swam at Florida and Arizona during his college career. He swims some of the same events as Ryan, i.e. 200 free and 200 IM, but is also a 100 free sprinter.

Leith Brodie - Training Partner

Leith Brodie is 22 yrs old and lives in Brisbane, Australia. At the 2008 Olympics he swam in the 200 IM, making it to the semi-finals and coming in 14th. He also swam in the prelims of the 800 free relay, and won a bronze medal because the Australian team placed 3rd in the finals. Finally, he swam in the prelims of the 400 free relay and received a bronze medal due to the team's 3rd place finish in the finals.

At the 2008 U.S. SC nationals in early December, it was announced that Leith is training in Florida with Ryan. It was also announced that Ryan will go to Australia in early 2009 (Jan or Feb) to train with Leith. At the SC Nationals, Leith entered in a ton of events and achieved the following results: 200y IM - 8th; 200y free - 7th; 50y free - 8th ("B" final). In the prelims he qualified "C" finals of the 100y free, but elected not to swim in the finals.

It seems like Ryan will push Leith in training a lot more than the other way around. Nevertheless, Leith is certainly a world class swimmer and it should be very interesting for Ryan to experience training in Australia to see if there is something different he can try to help him increase his speed.

Meters (metres?) vs. Yards

I'm still planning to research information on Ryan's current training partner, Leith Brodie. However first I wanted to express some frustration with the fact that for short course races U.S. swimmers tend to compete in yards while the rest of the world competes in meters.

I'm as guilty as the next American of clinging to our old fashion units of measurement. If someone told me they were 195 cm tall and weighed 95 kgs, I could only guess as to what that really meant. Nevertheless, our antiquated use of yards in swimming is making it difficult for me to understand the times the swimmers are putting up at the European short course championships and to compare them to the times of the U.S. swimmers.

A few years ago I lived in London for 6 months and it became obvious that Americans do some very fundamental things differently than the rest of the world. For instance, in most of the world the 24-hour clock is used for time, the date is stated before the month i.e. today is 16/12 rather than 12/16, and the metric system is used for measurement. We are very isolated and stubborn to resist changing these things.

There are probably lots of pools in the U.S. that are 25 yards long. The YMCA pool I swam in as a kid was a yards pool. I realize if a pool is 25 yards long it may be cost prohibitive and perhaps impossible to lengthen it to 25 meters. However, the pool in Atlanta where the U.S. short course nationals were just held appeared to be a 50 meter pool that was shortened to 25 yards with a bulkhead. My vote is for the U.S. to get with the rest of the world on this issue. After all, we may prefer how our height and weight sounds under the metric system (definitely weight because 1 kg = 2.2 lbs)!

ETA: I just did the conversion on 195 cm tall and 95kg - it's almost 6 ft 5 in tall and 209 lbs, a football player sized person! It proves to me that I have a lot to learn about the metric system.

Ryan's Dedication to Swimming

Ryan in GQ Magazine (Jan. 2009)

As a Ryan Lochte fan, I love Gold Medal Mel, an Olympian and expert on all things swimming related. Not only do I love him for his super cute Reezy videos, but I also love him for the insider information he provides about Ryan's swimming career. For instance, in his December 13, 2008 blog, GMM provided the following insight:

"I should point-out that [Ryan is] exceedingly serious about his swimming.

Coming off of an Olympic performance, particularly Lochte's performance in Beijing, is emotionally draining. The fact that Lochte's back in the water shows fierce determination. Every day out of practice costs you two to get back into shape. We're only 4 months away from the Olympics and Lochte's back in top form! I think he's going to shine at next year's World Champs in Rome!" http://www.goldmedalmel.typepad.com/

It's difficult to imagine how hard it must be to (a) rely on your body to earn a living; and (b) return to the physical grind of swim practice after experiencing something as exciting as the Olympics.

I was thinking about (a) on Sunday at my pilates class. My muscles always feel a little sore after pilates, but I'm sure it is nothing compared to what swimmers and other professional athletes put their bodies through. Also, if my muscles feel a bit sore, or even if I am injured, I can still go to the office, sit at my desk, and write reports and briefs like any other day. I don't have to take time off work or worry that my body won't heal properly or fear that I'll never be as good at my job as I used to be (not to mention the whole aging process). This must be very stressful for professional athletes to endure.

As for (b), the closest thing in my life that I could relate to the Olympics experience is passing the bar exam. It's certainly my biggest accomplishment, and it was the culmination of 3 years of hard work. However, it's really not the same as the Olympics because it's not like my brain forgot two days worth of knowledge for every one day I relaxed between taking the bar exam and starting work and, unlike the very few individuals who win Olympic gold medals, thousands of people pass the bar exam every year.

In any event, it is cool to learn from GMM that Ryan is serious about swimming and he has a fierce determination. That is a quality anyone can look up to and it inspires me to try harder in my job, even if it is less than 1% as exciting as Ryan's!

Mike Alexandrov (Training Partner)

In November 2007, Lochte told Swimming World magazine that he had been training with Mike Alexandrov, and attributed his "speedy" peformance at short course nationals to that training. http://www.swimtechnique.com/lane9/news/16349.asp?q=USA%20Short%20Course%20National%20Championships:%20Day%20Two%20Finals,%20Club%20Wolverine%20Blasts%20American,%20U.S.%20Open%20Relay%20Record.

Mikhail "Mike" Alexandrov is 23 years old and was born in Bulgaria, but was mostly raised in the U.S. He swam for Northwestern University from 2003-2007 and was a teammate of Matt Grevers. His specialties are breastroke and IM. In his senior year, Mike won the NCAA championship for 100y breast. He also swam breast in Northwestern's 400y medley relay, which placed first in the NCAA championships.

Mike competed for Bulgaria at the 2004 Olympics in the 200 IM (prelims), 200 free (prelims) and 200 breast (prelims). He also swam for Bulgaria at the 2008 Olympics in 200IM (prelims), 100 breast (semi-finals) and 200 breast (prelims).

Recently, at the 2008 SC Nationals, Mike placed first in both the 100y and 200y breast. He also placed 1st in the "B" final of the 200y IM, and his time of 1:44.94 was 7th best overall. Mike holds the American Record in 100y breast at 51.56. After the 2008 Olympics, Mike decided it is his goal to swim for the U.S. national team going forward rather than Bulgaria.

I have to say, it was kind of difficult to find much information about Mike, even though he is amazingly accomplished and talented, and one of the best in swimming. Perhaps it's because up until now, other than college, he's competed for Bulgaria rather than the U.S. I hope that as swimming becomes more popular in the U.S., more of the top competitors of all nationalities will become better known.

After learning about Mike's career and strengths, I can see why Ryan wanted to train with him. It's possible that training with Mike was a big reason why Ryan's breaststroke improved so much last year.

Phelps on Lochte

I started reading Michael Phelps' new book, No Limits: The Will to Succeed and it contains some references to Ryan, who MP calls "Doggy."

In terms of MP's swimming rivalry with Ryan, the following was of particular interest (referencing MP's thoughts on the 400IM race in Beijing):

"Though I respect Lochte immensely, love to race him, understand--I was not afraid of him, concerned about him, worried about him."

MP went on to say that what other swimmers do to prepare for a race is out of his control and that is why he doesn't worry about them. He also emphasized that he respects all of his competitors.

Nevertheless, the quote is telling of MP's view of their rivalry and I hope Ryan will use it as motivation to work especially hard to defeat MP in the future. I like and admire MP, but am rooting for Ryan to beat him in a LC event.

Thiago Pereira (Training Partner)

Thiago Pereira

It was reported during the Beijing Olympics that at some point Ryan spent time training with Thiago Pereira of Brazil. According to this article http://www.swimmersworld.com/News/view/4530 Thiago trained with the Florida swim team starting in 2006. I don't know how long he was there.

Thiago is 22 yrs old, and likely was a great training partner for Ryan. He competed for Brazil in the 200IM in both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. He placed 5th in 2004 (Ryan took silver) and 4th in 2008 (Ryan took bronze). Thiago also placed 8th in the 400IM in 2008 and swam 200 breast, but didn't make it to the finals.

What I noticed about Thiago in watching his 200IM and 400IM races in Beijing is that like most IM swimmers of his calibur, he doesn't really have a truly "weak" stroke. Nevertheless, freestyle seems to be his weakest stroke, which I would think is kind of unusual. I'm assuming Thiago helped Ryan improve his breaststroke while Ryan helped Thiago with free.

Training Partners

I've read here and there that at various times in his post-collegiate career, Ryan and his coach, Gregg Troy, have brought in foreign swimmers to train with Ryan for weeks or months at a time. (Or at least it appears that's how it works.) I presume this is done to give Ryan competition in practice and to keep him challenged and motivated. I would guess other swimmers would be very interested in training with Ryan given his speed, work ethic and excellence in all four strokes.

Ryan's training partners in the past have been Thiago Pereira of Brazil and Mike Alexandrov, who swam for Bulgaria in 2004 and 2008 and is now hoping to make it on the U.S. national team. It was announced at the SC nationals that Ryan is currently training with Leith Brodie of Australia. Pereira and Brodie are IM'ers and Alexandrov is an IM'er and a breastroker. All 3 competed in the Beijing Olympics. The next several posts will talk about each of these guys one at a time and explore what they offered to Ryan as training partners.

U.S. Shortcourse Nationals

Ryan entered 6 events in last week's U.S. Shortcourse Nationals. His results were great, given that he only trained 10 times in the four months after the Olympics. His events, times and (best times) are listed below:

200y IM 1:40.89 (1:40.08 on 11/29/07) - 1st place
50y free 19.39 (19.22 on 11/29/07) - 7th place
100y back 45.37 (44.60 on 3/23/06) - 1st place
200y free 1:32.40 (best time) - 1st place
200y back 1:38.49 (1:36.81 on 12/1/07) - 1st place
100y free 41.99 (best time) - 4th place

Ryan swam best times in 200 and 100 free and close to best times in 200IM and 50 free. Ryan's backstroke events were not as close to his best times, but he raced hard and won both.

At this point I'm thinking Ryan will not try to qualify for Worlds in the 50 and 100 free. There's just too much competition, and Michael Phelps may starting swimming the 100 free as an individual event, which adds yet another swimmer to the mix with a better personal best time. At this point I can see Ryan trying to qualify in the 100 and 200 back, 200 free and 200IM. The 400IM is another possibility.

Thanks to swimnetwork.com for the comprehensive coverage of the Shortcourse Nationals. All of the finals were streamed live on the website, complete with announcers! I was able to watch live on Thursday and part of Saturday and was really impressed. The announcers provided information about all of the swimmers and the events. Comprehensive information about the meet (including results, photos and videos) can be found here http://www.swimnetwork.com/event/detail/20081203/2008_usa_short_course_national_championships-2296.html