Ryan makes U.S. National Team & Video of Ryan's underwater kicking

This is the offseason for swimming, so there's not much news to report.

The 2009-2010 U.S. National Team was announced, and Ryan made the team in 5 events. The swimmers with the top 6 times for each event make the team. The qualifying swims were at U.S. Nationals, Worlds and the U.S. Open, and could be done in the prelims, semis or finals.

Ryan made the team in the 100/200 free, 200 back and 200/400 IM. The only difference from last year is he did not make the team in the 100 back. This is only because he elected not to swim 100 back at U.S. nationals.

The complete roster can be found here: http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/_Rainbow/Documents/8e442aff-894d-4948-98f6-9085f2a6eaf0/2009-2010%20National%20Team%20roster.pdf
I'm not sure what benefits a swimmer gets from being on the U.S. National Team. A lot of the swimmers are still competing in college, and I would think NCAA rules would prohibit them from receiving any outside assistance in the form of $ or benefits. Professional and high school swimmers, on the other hand, may benefit greatly. If I can find anything out about the benefits, I will make a post.

Here's a video of Ryan swimming 50 meters underwater in 25.0 seconds. It was just uploaded today so it's probably recent.

Ryan's Short Course World Records - 100 & 200 IM

The 2010 swimming season has officially begun, with SC meets currently being held in Australia, South Africa and England/Canada.

Ryan holds Short WRs in the 100m IM & 200m IM. Both WRs were set at the 2008 SC World Championships in Manchester, England. Ryan's WR time in the 100m IM is 51.15 and his WR time in the 200m IM is 1:51.56. It's cool that he currently holds both the SC and LC meters WRs in the 200 IM and also the American Record SCY in the 200y IM. Not bad.

It will be interesting to see if any of Ryan's SCM WRs will be broken during these meets. So far nobody has come close, but in the age of the crazy suits, no record is safe. It of course must be noted that both of Ryan's WRs were set in the Speedo LZR, which is technically (no pun intended) one of the crazy suits, albeit an outdated one.

Results from the current SC meets can be found here:

South Africa:
http://swimsa.sportza.co.za/wfr/Telkom+SA+Short+Course+2009/2277

Australia:
http://www.clubsonline.com.au/uploads/swimresults/National/2009SC/index.htm

England/Canada:
http://www.swimmingresults.org/liveevent/index.htm

Ryan sets the WR in the 100m IM (SCM)


Ryan sets the WR in the 200m IM (SCM)

Ryan wins 400 IM, Clary 2nd....Ryan finishes World Championships with 4 Gold & 1 Bronze

The times were kind of slow, and nobody swam a personal best, but Ryan Lochte won the 400 IM and Tyler Clary came in second, which was a great result for the U.S. Laci Cseh came in 3rd. Cseh must have been affected by his illness earlier this week because he looked completely gassed at the end.

The final results were:

Ryan Lochte - 4:07.01
Tyler Clary - 4:07.31
Laci Cseh - 4:07.37

Great swim by Clary, especially catching Cseh at the end.

Here is a comparison of the splits:

Fly:
25.59/30.03 (Lochte)
25.87/29.71 (Clary)
25.79/29.72 (Cseh)

Back:
31.16/31.10 (Lochte)
31.68/30.34 (Clary)
31.85/31.72 (Cseh)

Breast:
34.69/35.97 (Lochte)
36.42/36.42 (Clary)
35.04/35.70 (Cseh)

Free:
29.51/28.96 (Lochte)
29.39/27.55 (Clary)
29.37/28.18 (Cseh)

I think this is the last time Ryan will swim this event, although he did not have his best time so maybe he'll continue to try to do better. He did not seem to enjoy it at all though. Clary's swim was the most impressive to me. If he can improve on his breaststroke, he will be unstoppable in this event.

400 IM finals today - Ryan 4th in prelims, Clary 1st, Cseh 2nd

The prelims for the 400 IM took place this morning in Rome. The 8 qualifiers for today's finals are:

1 CLARY Scott Tyler - 4:10.04
2 CSEH Laszlo - 4:10.33
3 KIS Gergo - 4:10.99
4 LOCHTE Ryan - 4:11.05
5 HAFFIELD Thomas - 4:11.32
6 NEVO Gal - 4:11.51
7 MARIN Luca - 4:12.66
8 PEREIRA Thiago - 4:13.05

Ryan finished first in his heat, ahead of Luca Marin and Thiago Pereira. Pereira led most of the way, until the last 100 when he was passed by Ryan and Marin. From the splits, it looks like Ryan took it easy on the middle 200. He'll be able to go a lot faster in the finals.

Ryan will be in lane 6 in the finals, with Clary in lane 4 and Cseh in lane 5. My prediction is Ryan will finish 1st, Cseh 2nd, Clary 3rd.