Article about Ryan Lochte and Peter Vanderkaay at Speedo South Sectionals

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/recreation/fl-speedo-swim-meet-0320-20110319,0,4825452.story

Speedo Champions swimming: Olympians Lochte, Vanderkaay buoyed by strongman training

Olympic veterans use Fort Lauderdale meet to prep for World Championships; McKnight quaifies for Olympic Trials in 200 IM

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By Craig Davis, Staff Writer

8:12 p.m. EDT, March 19, 2011

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FORT LAUDERDALE—

The medal for winning the 100-meter backstroke was around Ryan Lochte's neck less than a minute.

As soon as he stepped off the podium Saturday at Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex, Lochte found a worthy recipient. Tomas Dominguez, a 6-year-old who swims for Fort Lauderdale Aquatics, got the medal and a photo with the six-time Olympic medalist to build dreams around.

Then, for Lochte, there were acquaintances to renew with Olympic icon Dara Torres followed by more photo ops and swim caps to sign. Later there would be another final to swim, a pseudo duel with fellow U.S. Olympian and training partner Peter Vanderkaay, another medal to pass along to an excited youngster.

Lochte and Vanderkaay are the biggest names among more than 900 swimmers in the Speedo Champions Series Southern Zone Sectionals, which concludes Sunday. They are not here to show off world-class form. To hear them tell it, these are a couple of beat-up Olympians on display.

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"We're riding pretty low in the water right now," said Vanderkaay, a three-time Olympic medalist.

This is Spring Break on Fort Lauderdale beach, but these boys are here mainly to work. They swim a full workout each morning before competing in the preliminaries of their events.

Still, it is a welcome break from the arduous regimen with their training group at the University of Florida. Since recovering from a knee injury suffered in 2009 while, ahem, break-dancing, Lochte has undertaken a serious weight-training program patterned after the strongman competition. He tosses empty beer kegs, hoists cement barrels onto a platform, drags heavy boat chains, among other back-breaking exercises.

Lochte credits the program for his remarkable 2010 season. The world records he set in the 200 and 400 individual medleys are the only ones recorded since high-tech suits were banned. He won six gold medals each at the Pan-Pacific Championships and the Short Course Worlds.

"It worked out so well last year, I'm going to keep doing it," said Lochte, 26. "At this point in the season, I'm definitely in the best shape that I've ever been."

Vanderkaay, 27, relocated to Gainesville from Michigan in December and is following a similar program in quest of a third Olympics.

"Flipping a 650-pound truck tire, that's one of the things I didn't have much experience with," Vanderkaay said. "It's been fun and challenging."

The two veterans are putting on an entertaining show. Vanderkaay came from behind to out-touch Lochte in the 400 freestyle in 3:58.78. Pine Crest senior Thomas Veale was a close third. Vanderkaay also won the 200 IM, an event he rarely swims.

Neither are concerned with the times they swim here. Nor does Lochte see any significance in his loss to Michael Phelps earlier this month at the Indianapolis Grand Prix. This year is all about peaking for the FINA World Championships in Shanghai in July.

"I don't really swim fast in the season because I'm so tired," Lochte said. "I know the work that I'm doing, and I'll be there at the end of the season when it really matters."

Not that this weekend is all about work. Lochte is finding time to mingle with the Spring Break crowd at the beach. But, he promises, no break-dancing.

Friday results - Speedo South Sectionals

See realtime results here: http://www.flaswim.com/realtime/2011scs/

Ryan placed 4th in 100m breast and 1st in 100m fly at Friday's Speedo South Sectionals. Here are the results:

100m Breast

  1 Polyakov, Vladi  27 South Florida Aq  1:03.97    1:01.99 OT      24
               29.06      1:01.99 (32.93)
2 Lima, Felipe     25 Una Dana-FG       1:07.51    1:02.94 OT      21
               29.86      1:02.94 (33.08)
3 Prono, Genaro M  21 Davie Nadadores-  1:07.72    1:05.04 NAT     20
               30.32      1:05.04 (34.72)
4 Lochte, Ryan S   26 Daytona Beach Sw  1:05.67    1:05.24 NAT     19  
                 29.87      1:05.24 (35.37)

100m Fly

  1 Lochte, Ryan S   26 Daytona Beach Sw    55.25      53.99 OT      24  
                 25.62        53.99 (28.37)
 2 Galofre, Julio   23 Una Dana-FG         56.47      55.68 NAT     21
               26.45        55.68 (29.23)
3 Beahan, Grant    23 ZIM-ZZ              56.45      55.75 JNAT    20
               26.24        55.75 (29.51)
 
 

Ryan has qualified for 2012 Olympic trials in 10 of 13 individual events

According to the "2012 Olympic Trials Preview" at USAswimming.org, Ryan qualified for the 2012 Olympic trials in 10 of 13 individual events. The only events he hasn't qualified for are 1500m free, 100m breast and 200m breast. He's swimming 100m breast this weekend, maybe he'll qualify in that event too!

Read the list here:

http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/6871e7e7-9fb0-4319-9397-b961be16a098/2012%20Olympic%20Trials%20Preview%20-%20Men.pdf

Ryan to compete in Speedo South Sectional in Fort Lauderdale - March 18-20, 2011

This is a LCM event in Fort Lauderdale that Ryan competes in every year. Here are his events this year:

Event #10 - 100m Breast (Friday, March 18) **remember in an interview at Pan Pacs last year Ryan said this is his favorite event. He rarely swims it! Will be fun to see how he does.

Event #12 - 100m Fly (Friday, March 18)

Event #18 - 100m Back (Saturday, March 19)

Event #24 - 400m Free (Saturday, March 19)

Event #28 - 200m Fly (Sunday, March 20)

Event #30 - 100m Free (Sunday, March 20)

No IMs, all four 100's and a 400 free/200 fly combo thrown in. Should be interesting!

The psych sheet can be found here: http://www.fgcswim.org/meetresources/meetinfo/11Info/11Mar/2011SCSFortLauderdalePsych315111100am.pdf

Indy Grand Prix post-meet report by The Swimmers Circle

The Swimmers Circle, one of my favorite blogs, had an entry earlier today called "Thoughts from the Indianapolis Grand Prix." It was written by Tom Willdridge, who also writes for a different blog I like called Speed Endurance Swimming Blog.

Here's what was said about Ryan:

• It is hard to imagine how Ryan Lochte felt about the weekend. His 100m Back time, 54.08, was superb and just 0.7 seconds off his best time. A future 52-second 100m Back effort looks to be a certainty rather than a possibility for Lochte. His other times were strong, although not spectacular. Swimming in (colourful) briefs he is clearly has his mind set on later in the year. However, in one weekend Phelps has essentially dismissed 2010 as a ‘nothing year’. If you took a straw poll of who the best swimmer in the world is right now, I doubt Lochte occupies the top spot any longer.

It must be grating for Lochte to have to answer all the old questions about Phelps’, rather than his own greatness. Interestingly he reverted to the age old media tactic of quoting his coach, ‘my coach says this is the best he’s seen me in the past four years’.

Read the full blog here: http://theswimmerscircle.com/blog/featured/thoughts-from-the-indianapolis-grand-prix/

Read the Speed Endurance blog here: http://speedendurance.blogspot.com/

I think what he is saying is Ryan had a good meet, especially given how hard Ryan trains in season. The 100m back time really is exciting. I can't wait to see if Ryan will get a shot at swimming back in the the medley relay at Worlds now that Aaron Peirsol has retired.

Ryan is going to have a really tough choice at Olympic Trials with the 100 back and 200 free on the same day. Does he give up the 200 free as an individual event and go for the 100 back like he did in 2008? Or does he give up the 100 back and go for the 200 free? Does he go for both? It's such a hard double, especially when he has another hard double later in the week with the 200 IM/200 back.

I'm sure he wants to avoid what happened at the 2008 Olympic Trials, which had to be heartbreaking. He decided to skip the 200 free final and concentrate on the 100 back. He finished 3rd. At the end of Trials, Ryan had the second fastest time in the 200 free, but because it was achieved in semi-finals and not the finals, it didn't count towards qualifying. Thus, he didn't qualify for either individual event.

Given how well Ryan swam the 200 free last summer, it has to be tempting to pick that event over the 100 back if he has to pick one. But qualifying in the 100 back gets him in the 400 medley relay. The U.S. has so many world class 100 backstrokers, so the risk factor of finishing 3rd or lower increases. But the retirement of Aaron Peirsol changes that a bit because he used to have one spot all tied up. The swimmers are now essentially competing for 2 open spots rather than just one.

It will be so interesting to see how it all unfolds

Interview with Ryan after Sat. finals at Indy Grand Prix

Ryan's part begins at about 4:36. I couldn't hear the question very well, but I think a reporter asked Ryan about the 200m IM and Ryan said it was his best in-season time ever. If that is true, he has to be pretty happy about the meet only though he only won two events.

Indy Grand Prix - Ryan won the 200m back on Saturday & tied for 1st in 100m back on Friday

This is Ryan after tonight's 200m back. He looked so tired! Nevertheless he had a fantastic meet.

On Friday, Ryan tied for 1st with Matt Grevers in the 100m back. Ryan's time was 54.08. He said it was his best time "in season" by nearly 1 second. I checked and last year in February 2010 at the Missouri GP Ryan's time in the 100m back was 54.81. He didn't swim it last year in Charlotte (in the finals) and at Santa Clara he was 55 seconds. A 54.08 is fantastic. Here's the post-race interview (starts at about 6:18).

Also on Friday Ryan swam in the "B" final of the 50m free. He finished 13th overall with a time of 23.39.

On Saturday, Ryan swam three races back-to-back-to-back. He started off in the 200m IM. He finished second to Michael Phelps. MP's time was 1:56.88, fastest time in the world this year. So fast. Ryan's time was 1:59.19. It's good for him to be under 2 minutes this time of year.

Ryan's next race was the 200m back, which he won by more than 1 second, with a time of 1:57.63.

Ryan's final race tonight was the 100m free. Ryan finished 12th overall (4th in the "B" final) with a time of 50.78. MP won the "A" final with a time of 48.89, another incredible time for him.

Ryan looked so tired after the 200m back that I am surprised he was able to even swim the 100m free. I'm really happy he went through with his triple tonight. As Ryan has said in the past, he needs to practice doing multiple events if he is going to do it at Olympic trials. I'm still holding out for him swimming some combination of the 200m free, 100m back and 100m free at trials, and they are all right on top of each other in the beginning of the week. Of course there is also the 200m back/200m IM double later in the week at trials.

I will post race videos for the 200m IM and 200m back once they are up at usaswimming.org. Here is the video for the 100m back from Friday. Of course it is only a link because Universal Sports STUPIDLY doesn't allow embedding. I say stupidly because they would get a lot more views if they let fan blogs like this one embed their videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODvY0QKl74Q

Gainesville Sun interview with Ryan about his training - March 4, 2011

http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20110304/articles/110309733?utm_source=GatorWire&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=MoggySocialMedia

The entire article can be read at the link above.

I thought this quote was very interesting:

Lochte said his times seem slow because of an adjustment in his training towards more weightlifting and less swimming. He also hasn’t shaved and didn’t taper before the event. He said in time, his marks should be better than ever.

“As I get older, there’s less focus on swimming and more focus on the little things outside of the pool,” he said. “My coach says this is the best he’s seen me in the past four years.”

Indy Grand Prix - Day 1 results

The Indy Grand Prix started Thursday and there were some absolutely incredible swims by Michael Phelps, Ous Mellouli and Tyler Clary. I still cannot believe how fast Mellouli and Clary were in the 400m IM, 4:13.80 and 4:14.80 respectively. Those would be fast times for Worlds. Unbelievable.

MP had some super fast times too with a 1:46.27 (seriously? in March?) to win the 200m free and a 51.75 to win the 100m fly. Incredible.

On to Ryan's races.

200m free
Ryan qualified for the "A" final, and finished 4th with a time of 1:49.41. I thought he was going to get 3rd, but he was just touched out by Dom Meichtry. Mellouli took 2nd. Ryan has to be really happy with that swim because it was under 1:50 and almost as good as the 1:49.25 he swam in the Austin GP.

Here is the video for the 200m free:

http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=10031fa3-9ff2-48b6-ab1e-68953e620f9c.html

100m fly
Ryan qualified for the "B" final and finished 4th with a time of 53.92. That's not a bad time given it's not one of his main events.

Indy Grand Prix - March 3 - 5, 2011

Watch prelims live here: http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=2059&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en

Realtime results here: http://www.iunat.iupui.edu/content/Other-Information/LiveResults/index.htm

Finals here: www.universalsports.com

Prelims start at 9:00 a.m. EST. Finals are at 6:00 p.m. EST.

Indy Grand Prix starts tomorrow (March 3 to 5)

Ryan will be competing in the Indianapolis Grand Prix, which starts on Thursday, March 3. The meet is long course meters.

From an article on usaswimming.org by Mike Gustafson: http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=0&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&ItemId=3196&mid=9874

2. Lochte vs. Phelps. OK, you're sick of hearing about this non-rivalry rivalry. They're good buds – Phelps and Lochte are like peas 'n' carrots – but they love racing each other (or so they say when cameras are rolling). Which means we swim fans love watching. Anytime these two go at it, they make headlines for the sport of swimming. Each talks about raising the bar to get swimming in the mainstream media. Well, this is how you do it. Match-ups, races, epic finishes and having fun. Watch for a lot of smiles from these two, and hopefully, some close finishes.

Prelims start at 9 a.m. CST and finals begin at 6 p.m. CST. Prelims can be watched on usaswimming.org. Finals can be watched live on universalsports.com.

Ryan is entered in 8 events: http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/c6f5e4e5-632f-4c72-8576-510dd8e3ebe6/preliminary_psych_sheet.pdf

Thursday, March 3

Event 2 - 200m free (Ryan is seeded 7th - also Michael Phelps, Ous Mellouli, Peter Vanderkaay)
Event 6 - 100m fly (Ryan is seeded 10th - also Michael Phelps, Tyler McGill)

Friday, March 4

Event 14 - 50m free (Ryan is seeded 56th - also Josh Schneider, Jason Lezak)
Event 16 - 100m back (Ryan is seeded 5th - also Matt Grevers, Nick Thoman, David Plummer)
Event 18 - 400m free (Ryan is seeded 17th - also Ous Mellouli, Peter Vanderkaay)

Saturday, March 5

Event 25 - 200m IM (Ryan is seeded 4th - also Markus Rogan, Michael Phelps, Eric Shanteau, Ous Mellouli)
Event 27 - 200m back (Ryan is seeded 11th - also Tyler Clary, Nick Thoman)
Event 29 - 100m free (Ryan is seeded 14th - also Michael Phelps, Jason Lezak, Josh Schneider, Matt Grevers)