A day after arriving from China, Lochte finished a disappointing third in the 100-meter backstroke, one of seven or eight events he could swim at next year’s London Olympics.
Lochte’s natural drawl was pronounced, as if he were resting on the vowels, when he announced afterward that he was too tired to compete in the final three days of the meet. His decision to even participate in the national championships on the heels of his six-medal star turn at the world championships in Shanghai struck many as madness.
Lochte, though, has never worried about spreading himself too thin, in or out of the water. With his colorful wardrobe and carefree demeanor, he comes across as someone who would be fun to get to know over a pitcher of beer; who, indeed, would happily do the pouring.
His world championships were almost derailed by a motor scooter accident. He has also sustained injuries while break dancing and skateboarding. Gregg Troy, his longtime coach, conceded, “I’m dealing with a 27-year-old man who lives on the edge a little bit.”
In Shanghai, Lochte aced his screen test to be the leading man of the London Games, which means that for the next 11 months, he will be treated like a movie star.
Will the increased attention cramp Lochte’s style? For those in his inner circle, it is no minor worry.
“If you do anything other than allow him to be himself, he’s not going to be the same athlete,” Troy said.
The two people entrusted with guiding Lochte through fame’s minefield look like Olympic gymnasts. Erika Wright and Shawn Zenga are diminutive in stature, but they think big when it comes to marketing their main man.
Lochte’s endorsements include Speedo, Gatorade and Mutual of Omaha, and the list is growing by the day. After the world championships, Wright and Zenga signed him to a deal, not yet announced, to pitch a product once endorsed by Tiger Woods. Also in the works is a fitness video, shot in the weight room, which will introduce unconventional uses for beer kegs and tractor tires. Lochte hopes to do for strength training what Rodney Yee did for yoga. He wants to increase its mass appeal.
Wright and Zenga showed up at one of Lochte’s meets last summer wearing jeans, high heels and black leather jackets with Team Lochte emblazoned on the back. Nobody was going to confuse them with the buttoned-down management at Octagon, which had previously represented Lochte and continues to work with Phelps and other top swimmers, including the 11-time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin.
“That’s what I like about them,” Lochte said. “They’re different, like me.”
He was sitting just off the lobby at a hotel near the Stanford campus. His eyes were half-moons and his voice was sleepy. Lochte perked up when he saw a Gatorade commercial in which his name is mentioned on a nearby flat-screen television tuned to ESPN.
Wright and Zenga are part sharks, part bodyguards and part mother figures, the real-life fusion of the fictional characters Ari Gold, Mr. T and Edna Garrett.
When they are not pursuing deals, they are policing fans like the Chinese man in his 20s at the Shanghai airport who hugged Lochte and would not let go. Or they are monitoring Lochte’s Facebook fan page and blocking women who send inappropriate photographs or messages, a full-time job in itself.
“They make my life 10 times easier,” Lochte said of Wright and Zenga.
Wright’s husband, Tony, is a longtime music manager who has worked with the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and ’N Sync. Wright, a lawyer, says she sees in Lochte the same ineffable aura that helped make Justin Timberlake a household name.
“I know absolutely nothing about swimming,” Wright said, “but what I could tell from the first time I met Ryan is he’s marketable. He has such an ability to reach people, to touch people, to get into people’s hearts because of his nature.”
Few athletes are more competitive or more compassionate than Lochte, who will undress a rival in the water, then give him the shirt off his back. It is bound to be some gem he found while scavenging on the Internet, like the one he wore Wednesday to collect his bronze medal in the backstroke, which had “Google Me!” stripped across the front. If you do, you will find more than two million results.
Lochte’s father, Steve, said: “A member of United States Swimming said to me this week, ‘Not only is your son the fastest swimmer in the world, he’s the most popular swimmer in the world.’ That’s the thing that made me proudest because it’s not because of his winning, it’s because of who he is: a sensitive, loving, giving young man.”
Lochte was born in upstate New York on the next-to-last day of the swimming competition at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. His mother, Ileana, delivered him shortly before the American Rick Carey came through with the gold in the 100-meter backstroke.
He grew up in Daytona Beach, Fla., where his parents were swim coaches. Ileana Lochte oversaw the development of his textbook strokes before his father molded him into a national-caliber swimmer. Then they sent him to Gainesville, where he became a seven-time N.C.A.A. champion under Troy, who oversees the University of Florida program.
Last year, the marriage of Lochte’s parents fell apart as his training was coming together. Steve Lochte, in what he described as “the lowest point of my life,” was charged with driving under the influence and subsequently lost his coaching job at Daytona State College. Last October, he was fined, ordered to do community service and placed on a year’s probation.
Lochte had a long talk with his father. “He wants for everyone to be happy and to enjoy life,” Steve Lochte said. “That was his biggest concern.”
Lochte also reached out to his mother. “The first thing he did was send me money,” she said in a telephone interview from Florida. “I said, ‘No, I don’t need it.’ ”
Ileana Lochte traveled to the world championships with Lochte’s two younger brothers. (He also has two older sisters.) Steve Lochte attended the national championships. Their divorce became final shortly after last year’s championships, in which Lochte handed Phelps his first loss in the 200 individual medley since 2002, to foreshadow his world championship victories over Phelps this summer in the 200 freestyle and the 200 I.M.
“If I want to accomplish what I want to accomplish in the sport of swimming, I have to be able to separate my swimming life and my family life,” Lochte said. “Sometimes, it’s hard because my family is a big part of me. I’ll do anything for them.”
Lochte’s driven side does not get enough attention. He worships the rapper Lil Wayne but twice turned down opportunities to see him perform — at a pre-Super Bowl party in Miami and at an Orlando concert — because he would have had to miss training.
Lochte turned 27 on Wednesday but felt years older as he made his way gingerly toward the Avery Athletic Center exit, every muscle aching. A group of girls was waiting outside the gate. Some had racing caps for Lochte to sign. Others held handmade signs wishing him a happy birthday or imploring him to follow them on Twitter.
Lochte autographed every item thrust at him, smiled on cue for photographs and made small talk with his admirers, a few of whom were old enough to be his mother.
Matt Grevers, a 2008 Olympian who had just won the 100 backstroke at Lochte’s expense, patted him on the back and continued walking toward the parking lot. Lochte kept signing.
screaming throngs of fans, but doesn’t back away. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
No other swimmer has seen his celebrity status explode like Ryan Lochte. He’s become infinitely more popular since pre-Beijing. Sure, he’s a phenomenal swimmer. He dominates the pool like an aquatic super hero. Lochte also has the cool, easy-breezy swagger that attracts fans -- the confidence that swimmers are famous for, magnified in the magnetic Lochte.
