Swimnetwork.com has pre-meet interviews with the Olympians, including Ryan, but his video did not get posted and Ricky Berens' video was posted twice & labeled as Ryan Lochte. Hope that gets fixed soon.
At the end of Ryan's sophomore year in college, he was an Olympian. How he got there is interesting. Here's a newspaper article published in October 2003, at the start of Ryan's sophomore year: http://www.gatorzone.com/story.php?id=6011 The article says that Ryan trains in the pool 30 hours a week and is hoping to qualify for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
What really struck me is that Ryan was not at all a backstroker at this stage of his swimming career. He also isn't much of an underwater kicker. He must really start to work on that after the Olympics. Improving his underwater kicking and becoming a great backstroker will be what vaults Ryan into the next level.
2003/04 Florida
US Open - December 2003
2nd in the 200m IM (2:02.53)
5th in the 800m free relay
3rd in the 200m free (1:50.75)
5th in the 400m IM (4:27.16)
7th in the 1,500m free (15:39.15)
5th in the 400 free relay
2nd in the US Open Male High Point Award
SEC Championships - February 2004
1st in the 400 IM (3:41.42)
1st in the 800 free relay
3rd in the 200 fly (1:43.84)
2nd in the 200 free relay
2nd in the 400 free relay
2nd in the 200 IM (1:43.84)(It certainly is strange that Ryan had the exact same time in the 200 fly and the 200 IM)
4th in the SEC Male High Point Award (53 points)
The guy who beat Ryan in the 200 IM was George Bovell, then a sophomore at Auburn.
NCAA Championships - March 2004
7th in the 200m free relay
3rd in the 200m IM (1:55.62)
1st in the 400m IM (4:04.52) (NCAA & American record, missed WR by .28)
3rd in the 800m free relay
9th in the 200m fly (1:56.35)
4th in the 400m free relay
11th in NCAA Male High Point Award (45 points)
A couple of interesting things about the 2004 NCAA Championships. First, they were swum in short-course meters rather than yards. I think this was because it was an Olympic year but I'm not positive. Ian Crocker, then a senior at University of Texas, won the high point award. He set world records in the 100m fly and 100m free and as part of the 400m medley relay with Aaron Peirsol, Brenden Hansen and Garrett Weber-Gale. George Bovell won the 200m IM and Eric Shanteau was 4th.
Olympic Trials - July 2004
4th in the 400m IM (4:18.46)
4th in the 200m free (1:48.65)* - qualified for Olympics in the 800m free relay
16th in the 100m free (50.79) - scratched semi-final
2nd in the 200m IM (1:59.41)* - qualified for Olympics
5th in the 1,500m free prelims (15:28.37) - scratched final
I didn't realize Ryan came so close to qualifying for the Olympics in the 400m IM. Here's some information about that experience:
"On the first day of the Olympic Trials, Ryan underperformed in the finals of the 400 IM. Whereas he and his inner circle were hopeful that Ryan would crack the 4:10 barrier, he missed his backstroke turn, and after that, the wheels came off as he finished fourth in 4:18.46. As a sign of Ryan's experience, however, he quickly rebounded the next morning in the 200 freestyle."
It's fascinating that Ryan did so well in the 200m free. He didn't really swim that event in college, at least not in the SECs or the NCAAs. Ryan was more of a distance freestyler but something in his training made him faster in the shorter distance. He improved almost 2 seconds from his time in the 200m free at the 2003 US Open in December to the Olympic Trials in July.
Athens Olympics - August 2004
Gold medal in 800m free relay (American record)
Ryan swam in the prelims of the 800m free relay with Scott Goldblatt, Dan Ketchum and Peter Vanderkaay. Ryan's time of 1:47.39 was the fastest and qualified him to swim in the finals with Michael Phelps and Klete Keller. Peter Vanderkaay had the second fastest time in prelims so he won a place in the finals as well.
In the finals, it was Ryan swam second after Michael Phelps. It was Ryan's job to hold off Michael Klim, one of Australia's stars. Ryan not only held off Klim but built the lead established by Michael Phelps by another .10. Ryan's time was 1:47.52 and Klim's time was 1:47.62.
The race was very exciting with Peter Vanderkaay doing his job building the lead and then Klete Keller holding off the best 200m free swimmer of the time - Ian Thorpe - to bring in the Gold for the U.S. by only .13 seconds.
In Ryan's speech a couple of weekends ago (see video on April 25 entry below), he said he got serious about swimming in college. Here's a look back at how he progressed each year, starting with his freshman season in 2002-03. Ryan did really well that year but it is amazing how far he has come.
2002/03 Florida
U.S. Open - December 2002
4th in the 200m IM (2:04.63)
6th in the 400m free (3:59.44)
4th in the 1,500m free (15:50.17)
3rd in the 400m IM (4:29.37)
6th in the 400m free relay
US Open Male High Points Award (66 points)
SEC Championships - February 2003
1st in the 800 free relay
2nd in the 200 IM (1:45.05)
2nd in the 200 free relay
1st in the 400 IM (3:43.31) - Ryan's goggles broke at the beginning of the race
1st in the 1,650 free (14:55.03)
SEC Male High Points Award (57 points)
SEC Swimming of the Year & Freshman of the Year
NCAA Championships - March 2003
4th in the 200 IM (1:44.58)
7th in the 200 free relay
2nd in the 800 free relay
3rd in the 400 IM (3:41.45)
8th in the 1,650 free (14:59.18)
7th (tied) in the 400 medley relay
7th (tied) in Male High Point Award (42 points)
2003 Pan Am Games
The swim meet at the 2003 Pan Am Games took place in the Dominican Republic from August 12-18. Ryan was part of the gold-medal winning 4 x 200m free relay along with Daniel Ketchum, Jeffrey Lee and Bryan Goldberg.
For his individual events, Ryan swam the 200m IM and 400m IM as exhibitions. This means that his qualifying times for the Pan Am games were not fast enough to allow him to swim the individual events, but he was allowed to swim in the prelims as an exhibition. The results were very good.
In the 200m IM, Ryan swam a 2:00.34, which was the 8th fastest time in the world in 2003. It would have placed Ryan 2nd if he had been allowed to swim in the finals.
In the 400m IM, Ryan's time was 4:16.80, which was the 7th fastest time in the world in 2003. It would have placed 1st in the finals.
In the post below where I go through Ryan's accomplishments at big international meets, I missed one of his world records at the 2006 Short Course World Championships in Shanghai. The WR was in the 100m Back and happened in the first leg of the 4 x 100m Medley Relay. The team went on to win a silver, but Ryan's time of 49.99 in the backstroke leg was a world record.
Swimming World Magazine recently posted a list of the Men's All-Time Top Short Course Yards Performances. The list compiled the top 50 performances for each short-course event. The article and list can be found here:
The list got me thinking: Is Ryan the best short course yards swimmer of all time? I think an argument can be made that he is.
Ryan holds top 50 times in 10 out of 14 individual events. The only events in which he has not had a top 50 time are 100/200y Breast and 1000/1650y Free. He came close to a top-50 time in the 100y Breast with a 53.27 at the 2007 U.S. Short Course Championships
Ryan has set multiple NCAA and American records in the 100/200y Back and 200/400y IM
Ryan has 34 top 50 times in 10 events. No other swimmer comes close.
50y Free - 19.22 (2007 - top 50) 100y Free - 41.99 (2008 - top 25) 200y Free - 1:32.40 (2008 - #10); 1:33.07 (2005 - top 25); 1:33.32 (2009 - top 50) 500y Free - 4:13.23 (2007 - top 50)
100y Back - 44.60 (2006 - American/NCAA record); 45.19 (2005 - top 15); 45.28 (2006 - top 20); 45.37 (2005 - top 25); 45.37 (2008 - top 25); 45.44 (top 50) 200y Back - 1:36.81 (2007 - American record); 1:37.68 (2006 - #3); 1:38.29 (2005 - #5); 1:38.37 (2005 - #6); 1:38.49 (2008 - #8); 1:39.01 (2009 - #12); 1:39.44 (2007 - #17); 1:40.07 (2006 #31); 1:40.11 (2006 - #35)
100y Fly - 46.02 (2006 - top 40) 200y Fly - 1:42.39 (2006 - top 20)
200y IM - 1:40.08 (2007 - American record); 1:40.55 (2006 - #3); 1:40.89 (2008 - #5); 1:41.71 (2005 - #9); 1:41.76 (2005 - #11); 1:43.31 (2006 - top 50); 1:43.32 (2006 - top 50) 400y IM - 3:37.88 (2007 - #3); 3:38.15 (2006 - #6); 3:39.07 (2007 - #14); 3:39.08 (2005 - #15); 3:41.02 (2004 - top 50); 3:41.03 (2003 - top 50)
Here are some of Ryan's American record SCY swims. Apologies for not being able to figure out how to embed the videos.
The Charlotte Ultraswim, which will take place in about 2 weeks, released a preliminary psyche sheet today. Ryan has entered six events: 100/200 back, 100/200/400 free and 100 fly. As expected, he did not enter either the 200 or 400 IM.
Of most interest to me was his entry times. For almost every event the entry times were slower than Ryan's best times. I have no idea what that means for an elite swimmer, but it suggests to me a tentativeness....like this entire meet is just a test to see where he is at in training.
Here is his schedule:
Event 4 - 200m Free - 9th seed (1:49.0) Also entered: Michael Phelps, Ricky Berens, Pete Vanderkaay, Garrett Weber-Gale, Aaron Peirsol
Event 8 - 100m Fly - 18th seed (55.0) Also entered: Michael Phelps, Tyler McGill, Aaron Peirsol, Ricky Berens
Event 18 - 100m Back - 5th seed (54.8) Also entered: Aaron Peirsol, Nick Thoman, David Plummer, Michael Phelps
Event 22 - 400m Free - 2nd seed (3:49.25) Also entered: Peter Vanderkaay
Event 30 - 200m Back - 4th seed (1:57.5) Also entered: Aaron Peirsol, Nick Thoman, Ian Clark
Event 32 - 100m Free - 17th Seed (50.5) Also entered: Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, Ricky Berens, Nick Brunelli, George Bovell
