SHANGHAI — For the past eight years, the major competitive story line at every meaningful swimming championship has arisen from Michael Phelps’s international and historic dominance. How many medals will he win? How many records will he break? How dramatically will he increase his own legend?
So it’s rather strange to watch Phelps settling into Shanghai for the 2011 world swimming championships this weekend trailed by more curiosity than awe. At the moment, he doesn’t appear to be the best swimmer in his own country, let alone in the world.
That distinction belongs to a free spirit by the name of Ryan Lochte, a two-time Olympian out of the University of Florida, who has muscled past Phelps since the last world championships in 2009, winning more titles, more international acclaim and the distinction of being the most accomplished swimmer on the planet in 2010.
“What Michael did in 2008 is definitely going to go down in history,” Lochte said Saturday morning. “It was amazing. But that was three years ago. We’re in 2011, so anything can happen. I know, since 2008, I’m definitely a better swimmer than I was back then. We’re definitely going to put on a show this meet.”
As Phelps’s enthusiasm for training has waned since he won eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Lochte has motored by with his head down, setting the stage for a potentially magnificent confrontation or, perhaps, an official changing of the guard, at the Summer Games in London next year. For sure, the two should provide a year of aquatic drama, beginning at the championships here that run through July 31.
Each is scheduled to swim in four individual events and as many as three relays; they will go head-to-head in the 200-meter freestyle and 200 individual medley.
“I’m kind of playing catch-up now,” Phelps, 26, said before leaving for Shanghai. “I think it’s more motivating. I remember back in 2000, 2001, I was trying to climb and climb and finally I got there. Being back in this position, I think, will be kind of fun.”
Contrast of styles
It will surely be fun for fans who have grown weary of seeing Phelps often race nothing but clocks and history. Lochte, a six-time Olympic medalist whose achievements have long been dwarfed by Phelps’s supremacy, is in many ways the competitive twin of the most decorated swimmer in history. Both boast all-around gifts, the ability to handle heavy meet workloads, excellence in the underwater portions of races and nerves of steel.
But if Lochte’s competitive acumen resembles Phelps’s, his personality could hardly be more different. With his scowls and intensity, Phelps often looks like he could rip a diving platform out of the pool deck before he gets in the water. He is routinely set off by the mere scent of an insult. Though also a furious competitor, Lochte can be a master goofball. He gets serious only after he dives in.
“Ryan is the personality,” said Austrian swimmer Markus Rogan, who attended Mount Vernon High and swam for Curl-Burke Swim Club. “Michael is the machine. It’s such a dramatic difference. Ryan is more like a Dennis Rodman. Michael is more like a Tim Duncan.”
In minor races in which times aren’t crucial, Lochte prefers tiny pink, purple, lime or polka-dotted briefs to the conservative black jammer shorts most of his rivals don. He sports signature metallic-emerald-colored high-top sneakers before race finals, and has worn grills — decorative metal plates for one’s teeth — on medal stands.
At U.S. meets, Phelps always draws full-throated roars from crowds. The cheers for the curly-haired, blue-eyed Lochte — who shows off an extensive modeling portfolio on his Web site, www.ryanlochte.com — often take on the higher pitch of squealing teenage girls.
“I don’t really care what people think. As long as I’m having fun, I’ll act a fool,” Lochte, 26, said before this meet. “Me and him live two different lifestyles. Our personalities are different. He’s a more conservative type; I’m more of an out-there, gone-wild type.”
Leveling the field
Despite Lochte’s antics, he seems to have no trouble applying himself to the hard training that Phelps has frequently shunned since Beijing. Phelps’s coach, Bob Bowman, has talked openly about his frustration with Phelps’s unwillingness to commit to a full practice schedule — or any schedule at all — in recent years.
Lochte, meantime, has worked harder than ever since he won two gold medals and two bronzes in Beijing. He said he dramatically changed his eating habits and stepped up his approach to dryland training, adding speed even after the controversial speed suits were banned. Despite a growing itch to escape the university lifestyle, he has remained in Gainesville, Fla., under his college coach, Gregg Troy, since his graduation in 2007. The isolation and routine, he said, have worked.
“There’s been times like, ‘Why am I still in this collegiate atmosphere; I gotta get out of here,’ ” Lochte said. “But I stay there because I have everything perfect. The best swim coach, the best weight-training coach. . . . Everything’s perfect.”
Lochte said he resets his mind at the end of every summer, telling himself he’s no better than anyone else and must start his climb all over again. That, he claimed, is the simple secret to his self-motivation, what’s allowed him to continue training with abandon while Phelps and others have struggled with distractions.
“I went down thinking: ‘I’m at the bottom. I have to work the whole next year getting myself back up to the top,’ ” he said. “I keep doing that to myself. Right now, [that trick] has been working since ’08. Since ’08, I’ve gotten a lot faster each year.”
Phelps has struggled since 2008 and flat-out puttered since 2009, when he had an alternately fabulous and bruising meet at the world championships in Rome, the last major event at which speed suits were allowed.
Unlike Lochte and others, Phelps is only an underdog when he is not totally fit — and even then he still strikes fear into the minds of most competitors. In his and Bowman’s minds, he hasn’t been in top-notch form since August 2008. At the 2009 world championships, Phelps lost his world title and world record in the 200 free to Germany’s Paul Biedermann as Lochte broke Phelps’s world record in the 200 medley.
Last year, as Lochte collected six gold medals at the Pan American Championships in Irvine, Phelps won five but failed to advance to the 400 medley final and pulled out of the 200 medley because of fatigue.
In April, his nine-year, 60-win streak in the 200 butterfly, his signature race, ended with a loss to China’s Wu Peng. Though he had by then grown accustomed to the occasional defeat, that one, he admitted, did not sit well. He then lost two more times in the event in the ensuing months, and he and Bowman had no trouble diagnosing the problem.
“Golf is not really good for the 200 butterfly,” Bowman said Saturday. “We can definitively say that.”
His ego shredded, Phelps vowed to put away his irons and prepare seriously for the coming eight days. During a news conference Saturday, he declared himself in much better shape than last summer.
“It does get frustrating,” Phelps had said earlier. “There are times where it’s not as easy as it once was. I know, deep down inside, there is still the fire that drove me to do what I did before. I know the fire is there to get back to where I want to be.”
When, exactly, that fire emerges is unclear. But this is for sure: If it flickers at these championships, Lochte will be ready.
“I believe in myself,” Lochte said. “That’s that competitive edge that I have. I never feel like I can lose. I always feel like I can win.”
Worth Noting
This is the biggest meet since last summer for Ryan Lochte, when in two straight major events (the U.S. National Championships and the Pan Pacific Championships) he outperformed Michael Phelps. Lochte beat Phelps in the 200 IM and the 200 back at nationals, the first time the Spruce Creek grad had beaten Phelps at a major meet.
Now, one year out from the 2012 Olympics in London, the two square off again. Lochte says he's in the best shape of his life, which is good since Phelps has been steadily improving in 2011 after a disastrous (for him) 2010.
The two could face each other in the 200 IM final (Lochte's best event) and the 200 freestyle.
Outside of facing his rival Phelps, a strong showing by Lochte in Shanghai would give him momentum going into the 2012 Olympics and would start the NBC hype machine rolling in his favor.
Lochte's six events
400 free relay
Heats — 9 tonight; finals — 6 a.m. Sunday
200 free
Heats — 9 p.m. Sunday, semifinals — 6 a.m. Monday, finals — 6 a.m. Tuesday
200 IM
Heats — 9 p.m. Tuesday; semifinals — 6 a.m. Wednesday; finals — 6 a.m. Thursday
200 back
Heats — 9 p.m. Wednesday; semifinals — 6 a.m. Thursday; finals — 6 a.m. Friday
800 free relay
Heats — 9 p.m. Thursday; finals — 6 a.m. Friday
400 IM
Heats — 9 p.m. July 30; finals — 6 a.m. July 31 NOTE: Times are the start of the morning/evening session, and for each event are approximate
On the Web:
Coverage of the swim meet at universalsports.com
GAINESVILLE -- There are more than two dozen fast-food restaurants less than three miles from the University of Florida's O'Connell Center, where Ryan Lochte pretty much lives most of the year.
He hasn't set foot in any of them in four months.
Read that again, as your jaw returns from the floor to its normal spot. Lochte, a man who inhaled predominantly fast food for most of his life, a man who won six Olympic swimming medals and brought fame to Spruce Creek High School, doesn't eat Big Macs or Whoppers anymore.
He's given up his beloved Skittles and all other candy, too. This is a huge development in the life of the 26-year-old. He adored junk food, ate it constantly. At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he ate nothing but McDonald's for two weeks.
Imagine the Cookie Monster giving up Chips Ahoy. Or Superman tossing aside his cape.
"I just don't eat that stuff anymore, and I really don't want to," Lochte said during a pre-practice interview last month. "I'm not even tempted anymore."
As Lochte heads into maybe the biggest meet of his career -- the 2011 World Swimming Championships in Shanghai, China -- his radically improved diet (changed at the urging of his new sponsor, Gatorade, and the scientists at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute) is just one major difference in his life right now.
For maybe the first time ever, Lochte -- who will swim in his first of six events tonight -- is seen by many in the swim community as being on the same plane as the legendary Michael Phelps.
For six years, Lochte chased Phelps around the globe, nipping at his heels and playing second fiddle. In 2010, Lochte caught him. He beat Phelps head to head, twice, at the U.S. National Championships last August in California, then outshone him three weeks later at the Pan Pacific Games, winning six golds to Phelps five.
Those performances had all-time greats like Rowdy Gaines calling Lochte "the best swimmer in the world."
For the first time in his life, Lochte is the man to beat, the guy on center stage. Sports Illustrated just ran a big profile of him in this week's issue. Gatorade has shot several commercials starring Lochte, running during ESPN's SportsCenter and on NBC's World Championships coverage. The 2012 London Olympics are just a year away, and loom tantalizingly as a place where Lochte can vault from champion to legend.
The hunter has become the hunted. In four individual events and two relays over the next week, the world will be watching the shaggy-haired kid from Port Orange.
"This is the biggest program, by far, we've ever done in an international meet," Lochte's coach, Gregg Troy, said. "So, it's a big challenge. But Ryan is still Ryan. He's not fazed one bit."
Healthy and strong
Of course Lochte's not fazed. This is a man who still doesn't think he's famous.
But he knows that since last August's breakthroughs, his perception in the sport has changed a bit.
"I know what people say on the Internet and other places, and it's never been something I worry about," he said, relaxing by the pool in a black Florida Gators T-shirt and blue shorts. "I'm aware of it, yeah. But I still know that to become great, I have to tune it out and focus on what I need to do."
The changes go beyond his diet, but that was a major one. Ignoring requests from his father, Steve Lochte, and Troy over the years to improve his diet, Lochte finally succumbed when the Gatorade scientists came to Gainesville in February to do some testing, as they do with many of the company's new signees (The Sports Science Institute did not return phone calls seeking comment for this story.)
As Lochte was put through cardiovascular and other workouts, he was told that while he was scoring highly on the tests, he could be doing better.
"And that was a big eye-opener for me, because if I could be even better in swimming, why not do it?" Lochte said.
Troy smiled when asked about the diet improvement.
"Sometimes," he said, "the light comes on a little late for some people."
Besides eating better (grilled chicken and vegetables are a new staple) Lochte has increased his training with UF strength coach Matt DeLancey to put himself "in the best shape of my life."
He's bulked up to 197 pounds and worries a little bit if that extra muscle mass might hurt him in the pool.
"My results haven't been what I've wanted them to be this year," Lochte said, alluding to a few disappointing minor meets, "but it doesn't concern me too much, because I know I'll be able to swim my best at the biggest (meets)."
Indeed, 2011 hasn't been stellar for Lochte so far, results-wise. But Troy said Lochte's training has been "as good as it's been since college." He credits the high quality of swimmers who train with Lochte in Gainesville (including the recent addition of three-time Olympic medalist Peter Vanderkaay) for making his star pupil better.
"Ryan's used to being in a group where he could dominate the other swimmers anytime he wanted to," Troy said. "He can't do that as easily anymore."
Maturing out of the pool
While his swimming career hits its peak, Lochte has made some changes outside the water as well.
He's even (gasp) matured from the kid who two years ago tore his knee up while breakdancing.
Now, the kid who once drove his new sports car 130 mph on a secluded road in Gainesville ("Yeah, that was pretty stupid," he said with a laugh) doesn't take nearly as many risks.
He scrapped a planned sky-diving attempt in Hawaii last year after Troy talked him out of it.
Lochte, who is still single and lives with his brother, Devon, and longtime friend Rex Tullius, doesn't party like he used to, either. (Of course, not everything has changed: He did still suffer his customary injury before a major meet, straining the MCL in his left knee while getting out of his car awkwardly in April. The injury is just about fully healed.)
These are all signs that the kid who used to just "show up and race" realizes the precious opportunities that are in front of him, and is taking his craft extremely seriously. If he beats Phelps head to head twice in the next week (they're slated to both compete in the 200 individual medley and the 200 free), he'll have a huge psychological advantage heading into London.
And the pressure and fame, just beginning to rise upwards, will skyrocket.
"I'm not thinking about London yet," Lochte said. "The plan is to win a lot of medals (in China) and if I play my cards right, that'll happen."
