Ryan Lochte is swimming's biggest star

http://www.goldmedalmel.typepad.com/mel/2010/08/ryan-lochte-goes-six-for-six-during-the-short-four-day-program-at-the-pan-pacific-championships-a-gold-medal-haul-like-micha.html

Click on the link above for an interesting blog entry by Gold Medal Mel. One thing about the Pan Pacs that cannot be overlooked is the entire meet was only four days long. Ryan won six gold medals in only four days. How many more could he have won if the meet was longer?

In the 2008, the Olympic trials took place from June 29 - July 5 (7 days), the Olympics lasted August 9 - 17 (9 days) and 2009 Worlds lasted Granted, these meets had prelims, semi-finals and finals; nevertheless, the time was a lot longer than four days. This makes Ryan's accomplishment at Pan Pacs - six gold medals in four days and four individual golds - even more striking.

It's going to be hard for Ryan to expand his events in 2012 if the schedule remains the same as 2008. In Beijing, the 200 free and 100 back were swum on the same days and tripled up with the 400 IM, 4 x 100 free relay and the 4 x 200 free relay. The 200 back and 200 IM were doubles. As indicated in the Sports Illustrated article posted below, Ryan may be better off training for the 200 fly than the 100 back.

Note in the comments Mel states that Ryan is working with his lawyers and reps on 3 major projects. Can't wait to hear more about this.

For insider information on the Charlotte Ultraswim & swimming in general (plus exclusive photos & videos)

follow Gold Medal Mel (Stewart) on facebook here http://www.facebook.com/GoldMedalMel1?ref=ts

Learned today that Ryan is swimming 9,000 - 10,000 (yards? meters?) each practice. I don't think it matters if it's yards or meters...that's a lot!! It's hard to imagine competing in a race while continuing to practice that hard.

Also, after Cullen Jones & Matt Grevers tied for 8th place in the 100 fly in this morning's prelims, rather than deciding who advances to the A final in a swim off, they had a coin flip. Matt Grevers won. Love the inside information.

Ryan wins 200 IM, nearly breaks WR

"I just wanted to take it out fast but smooth and hold on for dear life," Lochte said. "At the very end, you've just got to put your head down and race. I feel like I can go a second faster. I'm going to try to put it all together in Rome and see what happens."

Ryan Lochte won the 200 IM on Friday in a personal best time of 1:54.56, which was also a U.S. Open record. Eric Shanteau came in 2nd and Tyler Clary was 3rd.

Ryan's splits were as follows:

24.78 (fly)
28.67 (back)
33.43 (breast)
27.68 (free)

By comparison, Ryan's splits when he swam his previous personal best - 1:55.22 - against Michael Phelps at the 2008 US Olympic trials were:

25.55 (fly)
28.95 (back)
33.60 (breast)
27.12 (free)

If Ryan can go faster in the freestyle leg in Rome, he'll have a chance to break the WR. I'm not sure he can do it given that unlike last night, the 200 IM follows the 200 back prelims and semi-finals in Rome. But, I can't wait to see him try.

What a great swim. The race video can be viewed here:

http://www.swimnetwork.com/videos/v/20090710/nationals_men_s_200_im_a_final-16846.html

Gold Medal Mel's post-race interview with Ryan can be viewed here:

Charlotte Ultra Swim begins (for Ryan) on Friday, May 15

According to the Charlotte Ultraswim psyche sheet (found at http://www.charlotteultraswim.com/results09/Psych.pdf) the events Ryan has entered on Friday, May 15 are:

200m free (Event 4)
400m IM (Event 10)

Ryan is seeded 3rd in the 200m free behind Michael Phelps and Peter Vanderkaay. Ryan is seeded first in the 400IM ahead of Thiago Pereira, Bradley Ally and Tyler Clary. Both of these races should be very competitive and entertaining.

According to this document http://www.charlotteultraswim.com/results09/Session.htm, the prelims for Event 4 will begin at 9:33 a.m. EDT. There are 118 swimmers entered in this race. My guess is Ryan's heat will take place about 10 a.m. or so. Finals for Event 4 will take place at 6:12 p.m. EDT.

There are 68 swimmers entered in the prelims for Event 10, which are set to start at approximately 11:33 a.m. EDT. My guess is Ryan's heat will happen around noon. Finals for Event 10 are scheduled to start at 7:21 p.m. EDT.

The good news is we can watch the races live. For those lucky enough to have the Universal Sports channel, the finals will be aired on tv. For the rest of us, we can watch the races online at swimnetwork.com.

According to this article http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=0&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&ItemId=2425&mid=2943:

Universal Sports will air footage from the A, B and C finals Friday, May 15 through Sunday, May 17. Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines will provide color commentary for the broadcast and Steve Schlanger will handle the play-by-play duties.

Swimnetwork.com will provide a LIVE online stream of the Universal Sports broadcast. In addition, Swimnetwork.com will also webcast the finals on Thursday, May 14 and the prelims from each day of competition. Swimnetwork.com will also feature on-demand footage of the Friday, Saturday and Sunday night finals as well as behind-the-scenes interviews with Olympic gold medalist Mel Stewart.

In addition, realtime results will be posted here: http://www.charlotteultraswim.com/results09/index.htm

Ryan has not competed in a Grand Prix event since the Missouri Grand Prix in February...3 long months ago. I'm really looking forward to this weekend.

Next, I wasn't going to post this video because it doesn't have anything to do with actual swimming. However, it's entertaining so here goes:



Finally, in connection with the video posted above, Gold Medal Mel wrote an entry in his blog recognizing swimming fans who are not competitive swimmers. I thought it was so nice! Here is the link:

http://www.goldmedalmel.typepad.com/mel/2009/05/a-reezy-nation.html

Best Interview Ever

Fitting that this is my 100th post on this blog. Gold Medal Mel posted an excellent interview with Ryan on swimnetwork.com. I can't get the video to embed, but here's the url: http://www.swimnetwork.com/videos/v/20090506/gold_medal_minute__ryan_lochte-16511.html

In the interview Ryan says some very interesting things about swimming and Beijing. First, he said his best time in a 50m kick is 22 seconds. I remembered Cullen Jones talking about it at the Olympics. It's in the floswimming.org interview below starting at about 50 seconds. Given that the world record in the 50m free is (arguably) 20.94, 22 seconds just kicking on his back is an amazing 50m time.



Next, Mel asked Ryan about a time trial he swam at the Olympics the day after the 400m IM finals. During this time Ryan was sick because he brushed his teeth with tap water. Despite his illness, Ryan was asked to swim a 100m free time trial to see if he would be put on the 4 x 100 free relay. He swam a 48.4 or 48.5, which was faster than the 48.65 he swam in the semi-finals at the Olympic trials.

I looked up the times in the prelims for the 4 x 100 free relay. Here they are:

Nathan Adrian - 48.82
Cullen Jones - 47.61
Ben Wildman-Tobriner - 48.03
Matt Grevers - 47.77

Ryan's 100m free time trial was faster than the time Nathan Adrian ultimately posted in the prelims. It's too bad Ryan was sick. He may have been selected for this relay and won another gold medal.

Regarding the 200 back, Ryan said he was disappointed in his time even though it was a world record and he won the gold medal. Ryan believes he could have gone 1:52 or 1:51 had he not been sick. That's amazing.

I can't wait for the U.S. nationals to see what Ryan can do.

More on the So Cal Grand Prix - 100y free and 200y back results

Great news, lenaorgana (Lisa) from The Daily Reezy met Ryan and Gold Medal Mel at the meet yesterday and she posted a detailed account of her experience at The Daily Reezy website. In addition to speaking with Ryan, she took some photos and videos and also appeared in a video with Ryan that was shot by GMM. I can't wait to see that.

Also, Lisa Dillman of the L.A. Times interviewed Ryan about his future swimming plans and wrote an article about it. The article is very informative and will be covered in a separate post. http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-swim18-2009jan18,0,6794892.story

Given the overall Grand Prix results yesterday and Ryan's times specifically, it appears that Ryan and most of the swimmers are tired. I've read that swimmers do some of their toughest training over the holidays, and this is probably why the times are generally higher than usual.

A notable exception was Mary Descenza breaking the American record in the 200y fly and nearly breaking it in the 200y back. That is quite an amazing accomplishment, not only given the time of the year, but also because swimming those two extremely difficult events back to back and doing so well is unbelievable. Mary is an amazing swimmer and her accomplishments deserve attention. Hopefully she will continue to do well and qualify for the world championships in Rome. It's a shame that she never made the Olympic team.

Ryan's time in the 100y free was 43.18, which placed him first in the "B" final by nearly 1.5 seconds and would have placed him third in the "A" final had he done better in the prelims. Lisa Dillman wrote the following about Ryan's 100y free performance:

That led to a particularly painful opening race Saturday, the "A" consolation final of the 100 freestyle. His time was 43.18 seconds."Let's just leave that out," he said, smiling. "The 100 free, let's just say I was in so much pain. I've never felt that bad before."

The official results for the 200y back were not available at http://www.socalswim.org/, but swimnetwork.com had the following information:

Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla.) also had a strong night Saturday, setting a meet record in the 200y back in 1:39.01. Olympic silver medalist Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill.) was second in 1:40.42 and Adam Ritter (Reynoldsburg, Ohio) was third in 1:44.41.

Ryan broke the meet record in the 200 back. It's a nice accomplishment, although I'm sure he does not care about this one bit because his time was 3 seconds off his American record.

Swimnetwork.com also has videos of the individual races, which can be seen here:

100y free (B final)

http://www.swimnetwork.com/videos/v/20090118/2009_southern_california_grand_prix_of_swimming___men_s_100yd_freestyle___b_final-16073.html

200y back (A final)
http://www.swimnetwork.com/videos/v/20090118/2009_southern_california_grand_prix_of_swimming___men_s_200yd_backstroke___a_final-16087.html

As for the type of suit Ryan was wearing, Lisa at Daily Reezy told me he was wearing a regular speedo in the prelims and had some type of long legs-only suit on during the finals. In the videos, it doesn't look like a Speedo LZR. Ryan may be trying out a different brand of fast suit or it could be a different type of Speedo that I don't know anything about.

FINALS - 100 free and 200 back - So Cal Grand Prix

Ryan finished first in the consolation final of the 100 free with a time that would have placed him 3rd overall had he made the championship final.

Ryan placed first in the 200 back. :))

I'll add more information tomorrow, including Ryan's times and the kind of suit he was wearing. Hopefully swimnetwork.com will have videos of the races. I heard GMM was at the meet, which should mean more videos and insider information! A couple of people from Daily Reezy went too so that should mean photos.

Ryan's Dedication to Swimming

Ryan in GQ Magazine (Jan. 2009)

As a Ryan Lochte fan, I love Gold Medal Mel, an Olympian and expert on all things swimming related. Not only do I love him for his super cute Reezy videos, but I also love him for the insider information he provides about Ryan's swimming career. For instance, in his December 13, 2008 blog, GMM provided the following insight:

"I should point-out that [Ryan is] exceedingly serious about his swimming.

Coming off of an Olympic performance, particularly Lochte's performance in Beijing, is emotionally draining. The fact that Lochte's back in the water shows fierce determination. Every day out of practice costs you two to get back into shape. We're only 4 months away from the Olympics and Lochte's back in top form! I think he's going to shine at next year's World Champs in Rome!" http://www.goldmedalmel.typepad.com/

It's difficult to imagine how hard it must be to (a) rely on your body to earn a living; and (b) return to the physical grind of swim practice after experiencing something as exciting as the Olympics.

I was thinking about (a) on Sunday at my pilates class. My muscles always feel a little sore after pilates, but I'm sure it is nothing compared to what swimmers and other professional athletes put their bodies through. Also, if my muscles feel a bit sore, or even if I am injured, I can still go to the office, sit at my desk, and write reports and briefs like any other day. I don't have to take time off work or worry that my body won't heal properly or fear that I'll never be as good at my job as I used to be (not to mention the whole aging process). This must be very stressful for professional athletes to endure.

As for (b), the closest thing in my life that I could relate to the Olympics experience is passing the bar exam. It's certainly my biggest accomplishment, and it was the culmination of 3 years of hard work. However, it's really not the same as the Olympics because it's not like my brain forgot two days worth of knowledge for every one day I relaxed between taking the bar exam and starting work and, unlike the very few individuals who win Olympic gold medals, thousands of people pass the bar exam every year.

In any event, it is cool to learn from GMM that Ryan is serious about swimming and he has a fierce determination. That is a quality anyone can look up to and it inspires me to try harder in my job, even if it is less than 1% as exciting as Ryan's!