Videos of 200m back and 100m IM finals

Ryan wins Gold in 200m back and 100m IM

No World Records this time, but these events were swum less than 15 minutes apart. Great accomplishment. Tyler Clary won silver in the 200m back.

Ryan is swimming the 4 x 100m medley relay today, most likely the fly leg.

More later.

Ryan places first in 100m IM semi finals - misses World Record by .05

Watch the race here: http://www.universalsports.com/video/assetid=6006cc84-7563-4bf0-b3f6-0b85386ae11b.html#2010+sc+worlds+lochtes+100m+im+semi

Universal Sports doesn't allow embedding, which is dumb because they'd get more hits if they did.

The final for the 100m IM is tomorrow, along with the prelims and finals for the 200m back and the 4 x 100m medley relay. Ryan said in an interview that he will be swimming three events on Sunday night. I guess this means he will be in the relay!

Ryan qualified first for the 100m IM semi-finals

He will be in Heat 2, Lane 4 for the semi-finals. Tyler Clary is in Heat 2, Lane 8. The World Record holder, Peter Mankoc is in Lane 3. Here is a list of swimmers and lane assignments for Heat 2. I love the 100m IM!

1 SUN Xiaolei CHN - 53.70
2 FUJII Takuro JPN - 53.12
3 MANKOC Peter SLO - 52.78
4 LOCHTE Ryan USA - 52.06
5 BOVELL III George TRI - 52.60
6 FESIKOV Sergey RUS - 53.03
7 TAPP John Jake CAN - 53.43
8 CLARY Scott USA - 53.94

100m IM prelims

The 100m IM, the event I am most looking forward to, is next. Prelims are tonight at Midnight CST and semi-finals are tomorrow morning.

Ryan is in Heat 2/11 in Lane 3. Tyler Clary is in Heat 3/11 in Lane 2. For some unknown reason both were entered without any times, and thus they are swimming in the early heats. This may be the first time Tyler has swum the 100 IM. Ryan swam it at the 2008 Short Course Worlds and used to hold the world record (Peter Mankoc beat it in December 2009).

Here are some videos of Ryan breaking the world record in the 100m IM in 2008. It's such a fast event and it's so rarely swum that I'm really looking forward to seeing it again.

Lochte and Clary both entered in 100m IM with "NT"

Thanks to www.theswimmerscircle.com for pointing out that Lochte and Clary are both entered in the 100m IM with a "NT," which I assume means "no time." It's odd, but I'm happy their names are on the entry sheet.

Swimming Update - Short Course Season

The 2009/10 Short Course swimming season is in full swing. Unfortunately, Ryan has not been able to compete having just had knee surgery.

I don't know anything about the surgery or how Ryan injured his knee... According to Ryan's twitter, he injured his knee, had surgery and is out of the water for a few weeks.

http://twitter.com/ryanlochte/status/4348867232

http://twitter.com/ryanlochte/status/5186059487

The good news is Ryan will be participating in the 2009 Duel in Manchester, England on December 18-19. This is a short-course meters event, with the U.S. team facing off against a team from Great Britain, Germany and Italy. The Duel will be recorded and broadcast on NBC on December 27. http://www.duelinthepool.com/ Ryan spoke to the press about this meet after he had his knee surgery, so he must feel confident about his ability to recover by then. I'll do a separate post about the Duel closer to the time. The European team has not yet been announced, but I am very disappointed that Laszlo Cseh is not part of it. The U.S. team is listed here: http://www.universalsports.com/news/article/newsid=335264.html

I'm happy that NBC is televising the Duel, and do not want to complain about a major U.S. network airing a swim meet, but I really prefer the events to be live. Swimming is so much more exciting when it is live (i.e. all of the Olympics and last summer's 4x100 free relay).

I'm not sure if Ryan will be swimming in the 2009 U.S. Short Course Nationals in Federal Way, Washington, which will take place on December 3-5. Hopefully he will be recovered from his surgery by then. Here's some information on the meet.
http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/_Rainbow/Documents/11ed4e45-a0cc-483f-90a2-929f13173cfa/2009%20SC%20Nats%20Meet%20Book.pdf

The FINA World Cup meets are underway (actually they are almost over) and all of Ryan's SCM world records were broken. Ryan previously held SCM WRs in the 100 and 200 IM.

According to http://www.swimnews.com/, Ryan's WR for the 100 IM, 51.15 set at the 2008 SC World Championships, was broken by Sergey Fesikov of Russia in the prelims of the Berlin World Cup last weekend. Fesikov's time was 50.95. In the finals, Fesikov won with a time of 50.96. Ryan's previous WR was also broken in the finals by Gerhard Zandberg of South Africa who came in second with a time of 51.05.

Ryan's WR for the 200 IM, 1:51.56 set at the 2008 SC World Championships, was broken at the Berlin World Cup by Dairan Townsend of South Africa by only .01! I'm particularly bummed about this WR being broken. I liked that Ryan held the WRs in the 200 IM in both SCM and LCM.

I don't know what kind of suits Fesikov, Zandberg and Townsend were wearing in these swims, but I doubt they were Speedo LZRs or textile suits. It's hard to watch a WR go down when a) you aren't there to compete and b) the swimmers who go faster are not wearing the same suit you wore to set the WR. Given Ryan's injury and the fact that he rarely swims SCM, we'll probably have to wait for the 2010 SC World Championships in Dubai to see if Ryan can get these records back.

***A big thanks to callie01 from Reezy Daily who took these pictures of Ryan at the Minnesota Grand Prix in Minneapolis this past weekend. Ryan did not swim in the meet but went to do some PR and to help coach his teammates. callie01 was very kind to let me post the pictures here.***

Ryan's Short Course World Records - 100 & 200 IM

The 2010 swimming season has officially begun, with SC meets currently being held in Australia, South Africa and England/Canada.

Ryan holds Short WRs in the 100m IM & 200m IM. Both WRs were set at the 2008 SC World Championships in Manchester, England. Ryan's WR time in the 100m IM is 51.15 and his WR time in the 200m IM is 1:51.56. It's cool that he currently holds both the SC and LC meters WRs in the 200 IM and also the American Record SCY in the 200y IM. Not bad.

It will be interesting to see if any of Ryan's SCM WRs will be broken during these meets. So far nobody has come close, but in the age of the crazy suits, no record is safe. It of course must be noted that both of Ryan's WRs were set in the Speedo LZR, which is technically (no pun intended) one of the crazy suits, albeit an outdated one.

Results from the current SC meets can be found here:

South Africa:
http://swimsa.sportza.co.za/wfr/Telkom+SA+Short+Course+2009/2277

Australia:
http://www.clubsonline.com.au/uploads/swimresults/National/2009SC/index.htm

England/Canada:
http://www.swimmingresults.org/liveevent/index.htm

Ryan sets the WR in the 100m IM (SCM)


Ryan sets the WR in the 200m IM (SCM)