Ryan's Official Facebook Page and Medal List

Ryan now has an official fan page on facebook, which is really nice. Hopefully it will be a good source of news about his upcoming meets and other events. The link is here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ryan-Lochte-Official-Fan-Page/116972568324275#!/pages/Ryan-Lochte-Official-Fan-Page/116972568324275?v=info

I couldn't help but notice some mistakes in his accomplishments. For instance, the facebook page lists 2 Golds, 1 Silver and 1WR for the 2009 FINA World Championships. He actually won 4 Golds and 1 Bronze and had 2 WRs. The information about the 2006 Short Course World Championships is also inaccurrate.

It reminded me that there are mistakes on Ryan's profile page on Swimnetwork.com. Swimnetwork says Ryan won 17 world championship medals including 10 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze. That's way short of what he's actually accomplished.

I hate to see Ryan shortchanged because there are not many swimmers who have accomplished more than him.

Here is what I believe is an accurate list of all of Ryan's medals at the major meets:

2009 FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - ROME: 4 Gold, 1 Bronze, 2 WR
200m IM - Gold (WR)
400m IM - Gold
200m Back - Bronze
4 x 100m Free Relay - Gold
4 x 200m Free Relay - Gold (WR)

2008 OLYMPICS - BEIJING: 2 Gold, 2 Bronze, 2 WR
200m IM - Bronze
400m IM - Bronze
200m Back - Gold (WR)
4 x 200m Free Relay - Gold (WR)

2008 FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SHORT COURSE) - MANCHESTER: 4 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 WR
200m Back - Silver
100m IM - Gold (WR)
200m IM - Gold (WR)
400m IM - Gold
4 x 100m Free Relay - Gold (WR)
4 x 100m Medley Relay (Silver)

2007 FINAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - MELBORNE: 2 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 WR
100m Back - Silver
200m Back - Gold (WR)
200m IM - Silver
400m IM - Silver
4 x 200m Free Relay - Gold (WR)

2006 FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SHORT COURSE) - SHANGHAI: 3 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze, 2 WR
200m Back - Gold (WR)
200m IM - Gold (WR)
400m IM - Gold
4 x 100m Free Relay - Bronze
4 x 200m Free Relay - Bronze
4 x 100m Medley Relay - Silver

2005 FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - MONTREAL: 1 Gold, 2 Bronze
200m Back - Bronze
200m IM - Bronze
4 x 200m Free Relay - Gold

2004 OLYMPICS - ATHENS: 1 Gold, 1 Silver
200m IM - Silver
4 x 200m Free Relay - Gold

2004 FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SHORT COURSE) - INDIANAPOLIS: 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
200m Free - Bronze
4 x 200m Free Relay - Gold
200m IM - Silver

• Ryan has won 6 Olympic medals, including 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze.
• Ryan has won 28 World Championship medals, including 15 Gold, 7 Silver and 6 Bronze.
• Ryan has set 11 World Records in international competitions.

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)