Friday, November 30, 2012

US Short Course Nationals - Preview of Day 2 Finals

Ryan is in the A final for the 100y back (lane 2) and the 200y free (lane 5).  According to the usaswimming.org website, the timeline is as follows:

Men's 200y free - A final:  7:07 pm (CST)

Men's 100y back - A final:  7:45 pm (CST)

Lots of big names in the 100y back:  Matt Grevers, Arkady Vyatchanin, Eugene Godsoe and Ryan Murphy.  In the 200y free the A final has:  Ricky Berens, Nikita Lobintsev and Ryan Murphy.

Watch here:  USA Swimming

Don't forget to watch the highlights show on Sunday afternoon on NBC!


USA Swimming Interview with Ryan Lochte

Swimming World TV Interview with Ryan Lochte

US Short Course Nationals Day 2

Here are the heat sheets for Day 2.  Ryan is in Heat 7 of 7, lane 3 for the 200y free.  He's in Heat 8 of 9, lane 5 for the 100y Back.

200y Free Heat Sheet - Day 2 Prelims

100y Back Heat Sheet - Day 2 Prelims

Ryan Wins 200y IM in 1:40.97



He came awfully close to his American Record of 1:40.08.




Thursday, November 29, 2012

A video of Ryan's American Record in the 200y IM in 2007

I believe this is the first time Ryan beat Michael Phelps head-to-head and the only time he beat him until Long Course Nationals in the summer of 2010.

Let's see if he can go faster than 1:40.08 tonight.

US Short Course Nationals - Day 1

Ryan swam the 50y free and the 200y IM this morning and did really well in both:

50y Free

Ryan tied for 3rd best time in the prelims of the 50y free with a 19.51.  Nathan Adrian set a meet record with an 18.82.  Looks like the finals will be a dog fight between Nathan Adrian and Matt Grevers.  Should be really exciting.  Ryan scratched the finals and will not swim tonight.  The start list for finals is here:  Finals Start List 50y Free

Here are the top 8 prelim times:


1 ADRIAN Nathan  - 18.82
2 GREVERS Matthew - 19.11
3 BABAEV Pavel - 19.51
3  LOCHTE Ryan -19.51
5 TARWATER Davis -19.52
6 SMALL Adam - 19.63
7 ALLEN Jakob -19.74
8 WEBER­GALE Garrett - 19.79

200y IM

Ryan had the 2nd best time in the prelims of the 200y IM with a 1:44.52.  I watched this race and Ryan did not take a hard stroke the final 100 yards.  I think there is a chance he can come close to his American Record in this event of 1:40.08, set in November 2007.  He was so disappointed when he swam that time in 2007 because he wanted to get under 1:40.  He's come close before but never made it.  Let's hope for tonight.

The start list for the finals is here:  Finals Start List 200y IM

Here are the top 8 prelim times:


1 THOMPSON Austen  - 1:44.48
2 LOCHTE Ryan -1:44.52
3 LENDRUM James-1:44.76
4 JOYE Miles - 1:44.94
5 BENTZ Gunnar -1:45.17
6 SURHOFF Austin -1:45.19
7 KALISZ Chase - 1:45.56
8 MURPHY Ryan - 1:45.62

Comparison to 2008

My very first blog entry was after the 2008 Short Course Nationals, which were in December a few months after the Beijing Olympics.  Ryan swam the 50y free and the 200y IM on the first day of that meet as well.  It  will be interesting to compare his times in 2008 with this year's meet.  I recall he swam very fast in 2008 and had only been back in the pool for less than 10 practices at the time of the meet.

Here's how he did in the finals of the 50y free and the 200y IM:

200y IM 1:40.89  - 1st place (fastest time 1:40.08 in 2007)
50y free 19.39 - 7th place (fastest time 19.22 in 2007)


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Don't Expect a lot at Winter Nationals (US Short Course Nationals)

If any new Ryan Lochte fans (since the 2012 London Olympics) are reading this, please do not be upset if Ryan fails win many events at Winter Nationals.  In the past Nationals has served largely as a training meet for him, even though it's a big meet for most of the other swimmers.

Based on Ryan's past performances, it is unlikely he will be tapered this weekend.  If he tapers at all, it will be for Short Course Worlds in Istanbul in a few weeks.  Here is what happened in 2010, the last time Ryan had Nationals followed by Worlds (both being short course meets):

Short Course Nationals (Dec. 2-4, 2010)
200y IM - 1st
50y Free - 8th
200y Free - 4th
100y Back - 7th (in all fairness Ryan's feet slipped on the start and it's amazing he finished as well as he did)
200y Back - 3rd

Short Course Worlds (Dec. 15-19, 2010)
200m Free - 1st (meet record)
200m IM - 1st (world record)
200m Back - 1st (meet record)
100m IM - 1st (meet record in semi-finals)
400m IM - 1st (world record)
4 x 100m Free Relay - 4th
4 x 100m Medley Relay - 1st (meet record - Ryan swam fly)
4 x 200m Free Relay - 2nd

Ryan claimed at the time that he was 50% tapered for Worlds.  He trained through Nationals and was not shaved or tapered.  I would expect the same result this time, although given that the Olympics happened just a few months ago and he took a long break from swimming, Ryan is probably not training as hard now as he was in the fall of 2010.  He may be a little more rested this weekend for that reason.



Monday, November 26, 2012

2012 Short Course Nationals - This Weekend!

Swimswam.com has an article saying who will be there: swimswam.com article on 2012 Short Course Nationals/

Here is the psych sheet:  2012 Short Course Nationals Psych Sheet

Ryan's events:

Event 6 - 200y IM
Event 8 - 50y Free
Event 18 - 200y Free
Event 22 - 100y Back
Event 28 - 200y Back
Event 34 - 200y Fly

NBC will air a 1-hour highlights show on Sunday at 2 pm EST/1 pm CST.  The rest can be watched at usaswimming.org.


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Minnesota Grand Prix - Sunday

FINALS:

oops Ryan did scratch the 100y free, but finished 1st in both the 200y IM and 200y back!





The prelims heat sheet for Sunday is here:  Sunday Prelims

Ryan isn't scratching any events today.  He's in the 200y IM, 200y back and the 100y free.  That's a tough lineup!

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Minnesota Grand Prix - Saturday

FINALS RESULTS:

Ryan finished 8th in the 50y free, but he swam fly instead of free.  He finished 1st in the 100y back with a time of 46.21.  He won by more than a second.





Ryan placed 4th in the prelims of the 50y free with a time of 20.38 and 2nd in the 100y back with a time of 48.42.  Finals tonight at 6 pm CST:  Saturday Finals

The prelims heat sheet is here:  Saturday prelims

Ryan is in two events today, the 50 free and the 100 back.  For the 50 free he is in heat 2, lane 5.  For the 100 back he is in heat 8, lane 4.  Prelims can be viewed here:  Prelims


Friday, November 9, 2012

Minnesota Grand Prix - Friday







FINALS RESULTS -

200y Free - 1st -1:35.15
100y Fly - 1st - 46.73


Ryan Lochte competes in the 100-yard butterfly final at the USA Grand Prix swimming event, Friday, Nov. 9, 2012, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Andy King)

Ryan placed 2nd in the prelims of the 200y free with a time of 1:37.67 and 1st in the prelims of the 100y fly with a time of 48.08.  As expected he scratched the 400y IM.

Finals are tonight at 6 pm CST.  Watch here: http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=2056&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en

Friday, November 2, 2012



very interesting interview with Coach Gregg Troy after the Olympics.  He said if Ryan had qualified for the Olympics in the 100 fly (he almost did!), they would have scratched the 200 back at the Olympics.

I'm going to need some time to wrap my brain around that concept.  Preview for 2016?

It's time for a new swimming season to start! - Minnesota Grand Prix next weekend

The Minnesota GP takes place from November 9-11, 2012 at University of Minnesota.  The event is short course yards, which is going to be difficult to get used to after seeing mostly 50 meter meets in 2011-2012.

Here is the psych sheet:  http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/a3465818-ead4-47cf-aeed-589b7ac73eef/mn%20grand%20prix%20psych%20sheet.pdf

Ryan is entered in 11 events....which is every individual event except the 200 yard breast, the 1000 yard free and the 1650 yard free.

Event 2 - 200 yard free (Friday)
Event 4 - 100 yard breast (Friday)
Event 6 - 100 yard fly (Friday)
Event 8 - 400 yard IM (Friday)
Event 12 - 200 yard fly (Saturday)
Event 14 - 50 yard free (Saturday)
Event 16 - 100 yard back (Saturday)
Event 18 - 500 yard free (Saturday)
Event 26 - 200 yard IM (Sunday)
Event 28 - 200 yard back (Sunday)
Event 30 - 100 yard free (Sunday)

My guess is he will cut his events down to 6 or 2 per day.  Will predict the 200 free & 100 fly on Friday, the 50 free and 100 back on Saturday and the 200 IM and 100 free on Sunday.  Just guesses though.

In 2008 after the Olympics Ryan performed very well at the Minnesota GP and at Short Course Nationals because he was rested and had not yet begun his hard training.  I think this time is different.  He's been back in hard training for at least a month and he's going to be tired at this meet.  We shall see!

I still want to write my thoughts on Ryan's performance at the Olympics, which I thought was disappointing.  It could be that he over-trained and was tired.  If that was the case, I hope he adjusts his training this time around.  He definitely peaked in 2011, whereas other swimmers were able to time their peaks for 2012.  Is that the result of overtraining in 2012?  I don't know.