Swimnetwork - 2010 AT&T Short Course National Championships Videos, Photos & Articles

Swimnetwork - 2010 AT&T Short Course National Championships Videos, Photos & Articles

Watch the videos for last night's 100y back and 200y free finals here. Ryan finished 4th in the 200y free and 7th in the 100y back. It bugs me that swimnetwork doesn't allow for individual race videos to be embedded.

Something happened on Ryan's start in the 100y back. He was way behind in the beginning and worked hard to catch up the entire race.

I read here that Ryan has continued to train hard through the meet and is racing tired. If I find any interviews they will be posted.

http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=503823.html#lochte+shut+twice+short+course+nationals?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

US Short Course Nationals - Saturday prelim results

Ryan swam in the 200y back and 100y free today. Here are the results:

200y back

1 ROGAN Markus 1:42.59
2 TULLIUS Rexford 1:42.71
3 GODSOE Eugene 1:43.06
4 PATTON Matthew 1:43.09
5 RUSSELL David 1:43.20
6 LOCHTE Ryan 1:43.24
7 RESS Eric 1:43.59
8 MARGALIS Robert 1:43.64
9 HESEN Benedict 1:43.83
10 ELLIOTT Andrew 1:43.89

100y free

Ryan Lochte - Declared false start

Now Ryan can put 100% into the 200y back final.

Ryan wins 200 back! finishes Nationals with 3 gold and 2 silver

Ryan won the 200 back tonight by a ton. He could have gone faster if he hadn't hit the lane line several times on the last lap. As he said in his post-race interview, he can improve for Pan Pacs.

The top 4 finishers were:

Ryan Lochte: 1:55.58
Aaron Peirsol: 1:56.28
Tyler Clary: 1:56.36
Michael Phelps: 1:56.98

What a great meet for Ryan. 3 golds and 2 silvers. He has to be the top swimmer for the men at this meet. It's his best major meet as far as I know in terms of individual medals. He's qualified for 8 events at Pan Pacs, including 100/200 free, 200 back 200/400 IM and all 3 relays. Can't wait for Pan Pacs in 2 weeks.

The European championships start on Monday. It will be interesting to see how Laszlo Cseh does in the IM's!

200 back today!

One of Ryan's best events, 200 back, is today. For the prelims he is in heat 14 of 15 in lane 4. Matt Grevers and David Russell are also in his heat.

Aaron Peirsol and Nick Thoman are in heat 15. Michael Phelps and Tyler Clary are in heat 13.

I expect this race to be super competitive as Grevers and Thoman try to make the Pan Pacs team.

Ryan is looking so strong, I expect him to win.

Videos from Swimmingworld.tv - impressed with Ryan's swims

Ryan places 1st in 200 IM and 2nd in 100 free

I don't even know where to begin. Ryan Lochte had his best night of swimming ever, and he's had a lot of great nights of swimming.

First, he finished 2nd in the 100 free against a bunch of guys who are sprinters, not the guy who won the 400 IM. Next, he won the 200 IM, in the best time ever in a textile suit, and beat Michael Phelps. By more than 1 second. He swam these events less than 30 minutes apart!

In the second 50 of the 100 free, Ryan swam faster than Nathan Adrian who won the race and is the best sprinter in the U.S. In the breaststroke leg of the 200 IM, Ryan swam only .03 slower than Eric Shanteau, one of the greatest breaststrokers in the world.

Amazing. Ryan's time in the 100 free was 48.83. His time in the 200 IM was 1:54.84.

If Ryan qualifies for Pan Pacs in the 200 back, he will be in 8 events. 8! Wow.

Photos from tonight in the next post. I'm still trying to process this.

Ryan qualified for tonight's finals for 100m free and 200m IM

100m Free - Ryan qualified 5th with a time of 49.17. If he swims in tonight's final, he will be in lane 2. Other swimmers qualifying for the A final were (in order of finish) Jason Lezak, David Walters, Nathan Adrian, Garrett Weber-Gale, Matt Grevers, Nick Brunelli and Scott Robison.

200m IM - Ryan qualified 3rd with a time of 2:00.69. I had to laugh when I saw his splits. He would have placed first except he took it very easy on the freestyle leg. His splits were: 25.38 (fly) 30.14 (back) 34.15 (breast) and 31.02 (free). By comparison, Michael Phelps and Tyler Clary, who finished 1st and 2nd, had freestyle splits of 28.75 and 28.59. Other qualifiers (in order of finish) were Todd Patrick, David Nolan, Conor Dwyer, Austin Surhoff and Eric Shanteau. Ryan will be in lane 3 for tonight's final. Can't wait for this race!

History of Phelps/Lochte rivalry in the 200 IM

Can't wait for this race!! To add to the hype, here's a comprehensive history of the Phelps/Lochte rivalry in the 200 IM, dating back to Athens 2004. Ryan has always been so close but never winning until last year when Phelps did not swim.

This race is the highlight of Nationals for me. I fell in love with swimming watching these two battle it out in the 400 IM at the 2008 Olympic trials.

If you are a fan of Ryan and Michael Phelps, you will enjoy this article, written by David Rieder:

http://swimdr549.blogspot.com/2010/08/us-nationals-phelps-vs-lochte.html

Here are videos of some of the past 200 IM battles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaEItNfFOxo This is the battle at 2006 Nationals. So mad I could not get it to embed!

Day 4 of US Nationals - 100 free & 200 IM today!

100m free - Event #20

Ryan is in heat 17 of 17 for the prelims of the 100 free, which is the 1st event today. He is in lane 5. Also in his heat are Cullen Jones, David Walters and Nick Brunelli. I think Ryan can win this heat.

200m IM - Event #22

Ryan is in heat 20 of 20 for the prelims of the 200 IM. He is in lane 4. Also in his heat are Alex Vanderkay, Todd Patrick and Rex Tullius. Will also be watching closely heat 18, which has Michael Phelps and Tyler Clary and heat 19, which has Eric Shanteau and Jack Brown. I've been looking forward to this race most of all.

Wish Ryan did not have a double for the 200 IM, but at the same time I hope he swims the finals of the 100 free. I think he has a good shot of finishing in the top 4.

Ryan has today off

This means Ryan scratched the 50 free and 100 fly, which was expected.

Tomorrow is the 200 IM and 100 free. Saturday is the 200 back.

We have two more exciting races between Michael Phelps and Ryan to look forward to (200 IM & 200 back).

Watch the 200 free, 400 IM and other races at Nationals on Swimnetwork.com

Here is the link for videos:

http://www.swimnetwork.com/Events/Meets/2010/August/National-Championships.aspx?t=video

There are also a post-race interviews with Ryan for the 400 IM and 200 free.

If I find some more photos from tonight, I will post them.

Ryan qualifies for A final in 200 free, scratches 100 back

In today's prelims, Ryan finished 3rd in the 200 free with a time of 1:48.23. He has a good shot at winning this event tonight. He looked really strong in the prelims but seemed to take it easy. I think he can go a lot faster. Will be a fun race to watch.

Here's what www.swimmingworldmagazine.com said about today's prelims for the 200 free:

Men's 200 free

"NBAC's Michael Phelps made his first appearance of the meet with a fifth-seeded time of 1:48.40. After a rare day off yesterday, Phelps put out just enough energy to make the finale. He's been much faster with an eighth-ranked season best of 1:47.54 at the Paris Open. Club Wolverine's Peter Vanderkaay and Lake Forest's Conor Dwyer cleared 1:48 in prelims to lead the way into the finale. Vanderkaay, who won the 400 free last night, posted a 1:47.25 for the top seed. That swim bumped him into sixth in the world behind Takeshi Matsuda's 1:47.01. Dwyer, meanwhile, picked up the second seed with a 1:47.83. He moved to 16th in the rankings with that time. After winning the 400 IM last night with a top-ranked time, Daytona Beach's Ryan Lochte qualified third today with a 1:48.23, while Longhorn's Ricky Berens finished fourth in 1:48.28. Both times are among the top 25 in the world."

Read the entire article at http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/24720.asp?q=U.S.%20Long%20Course%20Nationals:%20Day%20Two%20Prelims

I was not too surprised to see that Ryan scratched the 100 back. He can always swim it at Pan Pacs if he wants to try to qualify for 2011 Worlds.

Tonight's finals begin at 6 pm PDT. Watch them here www.universalsports.com or here www.swimnetwork.com

I have to say, I prefer Gold Medal Mel's race commentary on www.swimnetwork.com.

100 back and 200 free prelims today - Watch Ryan swim against Michael Phelps

My guess is Ryan will scratch the 100 back and concentrate on the 200 free. The 100 back, whether Ryan competes or not, will be one of the most exciting races of the whole meet because the field is so deep. Aaron Peirsol, Nick Thoman and Matt Grevers would probably finish 1-2-3 if the Olympics were held today (and if 3 swimmers from the US could compete).

Prelims start at 9 am PDT and can be watched here: http://www.swimnetwork.com/

The 200 free is event #9 (the second event today). Ryan is in heat 17 of 17, in lane 5 right next to Michael Phelps in lane 4.

The 100 back is event #10 (the third event today). If Ryan does not scratch, he will be in heat 14 of 15, in lane 6. Also in his heat are Nick Thoman, Ben Hesen and Rex Tullius.

Real-time race results are here: http://www.omegatiming.com/livetiming/index.htm

Overall results and lane assignments can be found here: http://www.star-meets.org/results/Nats/2010/

More on the 400 IM

Here are the splits for Lochte and Clary:

1 Lochte, Ryan 26 Daytona Beach-FL 4:16.34 4:09.98 928 20
r:+0.72 26.02 55.95 (29.93)
1:27.02 (31.07) 1:58.06 (31.04)
2:34.54 (36.48) 3:10.75 (36.21)
3:41.35 (30.60) 4:09.98 (28.63)

2 Clary, Tyler 21 FAST Swim Team-C 4:15.87 4:14.12 883 17
r:+0.67 26.06 55.87 (29.81)
1:26.76 (30.89) 1:57.28 (30.52)
2:34.05 (36.77) 3:11.99 (37.94)
3:43.37 (31.38) 4:14.12 (30.75)

Ryan negative split the back, breast and free. I am so happy with this swim. He can go faster at Pan Pacs.

Ryan wins 400 IM with fastest time in the world in 2010!

Ryan placed first in the 400 IM with a time of 4:09.98. Never bet against Ryan Lochte. Not that I actually bet against him, but I started to believe the injury hype and thought Tyler Clary had a good chance tonight. Instead, Ryan crushed him in the last 150m and finished first by almost 5 seconds.

Oh, and his new Speedo shoes? are awesome.

Ryan placed second in 400 IM prelims

Here's what swimmingworldmagazine.com had to say about the race:

Men's 400 IM

FAST's Tyler Clary stopped the clock in 4:15.87 to improve upon his 12th-ranked spot in the world. He'd previously charted a 4:16.37 at the Los Angeles Grand Prix. Daytona Beach's Ryan Lochte qualified second in 4:16.34 to move to 13th in the world, but definitely struggled during his breaststroke leg likely due to his announced groin injury. FAST's Robert Margalis (4:17.43) and Poseidon's William Harris (4:17.63) qualified third and fourth. NBAC's Todd Patrick (4:18.31), Delaware's Andrew Gemmell (4:19.58), Athens Bulldog Bill Cregar (4:20.39) and NBAC's Brennan Morris (4:20.77) took up the rest of the top eight...

The entire article can be read here: http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/24708.asp

Watch finals tonight starting at 8 pm CDT at http://www.universalsports.com/

400m IM prelims - Ryan in heat 5 of 17, lane 4

He's right next to Robert Margalis, which is great because Robert will push him.

Here's where the prelim heat and lane assignments can be found along with results:

http://www.star-meets.org/results/Nats/2010/

If you want live results, check Omega: http://www.omegatiming.com/livetiming/index.htm

Pre-nationals Swimnetwork Interview of Ryan Lochte

The interview can be found here:

http://www.swimnetwork.com/Events/Meets/2010/August/National-Championships.aspx

Here's the 200 back video from 2006 Ryan is talking about:

U.S. Olympic Committee article on Ryan, his injuries, and competing at Nationals

This is a good article by Brandon Penny with some new information from Ryan and his coach Gregg Troy on how they dealt with Ryan's injuries.

http://www.teamusa.org/refresh/news/2010/08/02/lochte-calm-and-collected-for-nationals/37619?ngb_id=3

Here's an excerpt:

"The six-time Olympic medalist was forced to spend a month entirely out of water. After that, it was a three-month recovery process for him to slowly get back to a normal routine. Instead of losing his form and getting rusty, Lochte spent his recovery time learning more about his body and the sport.

“November to December, we were really limited about what we could do,” said coach Gregg Troy, Lochte’s long-time coach. “He did a tremendous job with fitness exercises through that whole point.”

* * *

Troy said that during his recovery, Lochte learned that he could improve himself outside of the water as well.
“He did a fantastic job in the weight room,” Troy said. “He learned how to take care of his body, and worked on some core body exercises.”

Lochte was still in the water during that time, but Troy had him focusing on different areas outside of their normal routines. Lochte spent more time than ever on his butterfly technique and increased his upper body strength.
“I think that aspect was actually really good for us,” Troy said. “Because it made us address what was his actual weakness.”

When Lochte returned to his normal routine in February, since the coach-swimmer duo were unsure if he would be able to swim the individual medley (IM) races, they put a new focus on distance freestyle and Lochte picked up the 400-meter freestyle."

Pre-nationals article about Ryan from Daytona Beach News Journal

Michael Lewis wrote an article about Ryan. Here's an excerpt that discusses Ryan's groin injury:

"The big question this week, though, is the injured groin. If he were fully healthy, Lochte would have a chance to go head to head with the Batman to his Robin, Phelps, in four events (200 free, 100 butterfly, 200 IM, 200 backstroke).

As it is, he might have to skip his beloved IM's if the groin isn't 100 percent. As important as the nationals are, Lochte is beyond having to prove himself, so there is no reason to risk a long-term injury if the groin muscle is not ready to go.

If Lochte is fully healthy, look for him in both 200 IM and 400 IM, the 200 free, the 100 fly, the 200 backstroke and perhaps the 100 free and 100 backstroke.

Troy said that if the IMs are out, Lochte will likely add the 400 freestyle."

The full article can be read here: http://www.news-journalonline.com/sports/local-sports/2010/08/01/uncharted-waters.html

Sounds like Ryan's groin injury is still day-to-day. He may not know until Tuesday if he's swimming the 400 free or the 400 IM.

He just needs to qualify for Pan Pacs in one event. Then he can give his groin a couple more weeks to heal and swim the IMs there.