Ryan Lochte let out a sigh, winked to the crowd and did an interview for a national TV audience. But this time, the post-race routine usually reserved for winners served a different purpose — marking the end of a redemption arc that didn’t quite make it to its final chapter.
Lochte, the 12-time Olympic medalist, failed to qualify for the Tokyo Games, finishing seventh on Friday in the 200-meter individual medley final at the U.S. Olympic Trials, his last best chance to make his fifth Olympic team.
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The 36-year-old Lochte was trying to become the oldest U.S. Olympic male swimmer in history.
Prior to the start of the U.S. trials last week, Lochte was asked how he would define success for himself. He’s now a husband and father of two. He’s spent the past five years trying to step out of the shadow of an embarrassing international incident with Brazilian security guards at a gas station during the Rio Olympics. He dealt with two different suspensions from USA Swimming yet didn’t quit the sport. His chief rival, Michael Phelps, retired for good. Yet Lochte chugged along, trying to reshape the narrative of his career with one final chapter of success.
“I feel like success would be making the Olympic team — not just making the Olympic team but going to Tokyo and getting another medal,” Lochte said last week. “To me, that would be success.
“But there are two sides to that because another part is me just being 36 and (knowing) everything that I’ve dealt with throughout my entire life. The training and everything and just being here, giving it one more shot — I feel like is success, too. Outside of the pool, I am successful. I’ve got great sponsors. I have a family now, which is the best thing ever. So, to me, I’m winning. Swimming is just the cherry on top.”
Of course, Lochte wanted to make this team. He’s been training hard with his old coach, Gregg Troy, trying to fight both time and a physically demanding sport. But it’s also genuinely refreshing to hear that he’s found peace and balance in his life. So many of Lochte’s missteps over the years have come squarely in the public eye.
Even now, five years later, there are large swaths of the public who believe Lochte totally made up a story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio, despite a USA Today investigation supporting the revised account he gave in which he said he thought he and three other U.S. swimmers were being robbed at a gas station by men who pointed guns at them and demanded money. Regardless, Lochte did vandalize the gas station to start the incident, and he lost sponsors and became a national laughingstock. Those who viewed him as an overgrown frat boy felt that the international incident confirmed their worst suspicions.
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“I can’t regret those things that happened because it helped shape me who I am today — and I am the happiest I’ve ever been in my entire life, and I’m doing what I love to do,” Lochte said. “Everything happens for a reason. It needed to happen because everything that was happening in my life — it was just going down a dark hole, and it was someone saying, ‘You need to wake up and smell the coffee. There’s more to life than just being a rock star, having that rock star persona.’”
"This ain't the end of the road. There's a lot more I want to accomplish in the sport of swimming, whether it's in the pool or outside the pool."@RyanLochte on his future in swimming. #SwimTrials21 pic.twitter.com/w442WAUASG
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) June 19, 2021
Lochte said he spent six weeks in rehab for alcohol addiction during a 14-month ban following an IV infusion of an illegal amount of a legal substance in May 2018. He said that stint in rehab made him rethink his priorities and realize how important his family was to him.
Troy, who first coached Lochte at the University of Florida, said he’s noticed a more mature Lochte during their recent training sessions, even the ones that come on the heels of a relatively sleepless night if one of the kids isn’t feeling well. “It’s safe to say Ryan hasn’t always made all the best choices, but he’s learned from those choices,” Troy said.
Lochte’s decorated swimming career will conclude with 12 Olympic medals, six of them gold. Four of the gold medals came as part of the 4×200-meter freestyle relay, which won gold at the last four games. Lochte added an individual gold in the 200-meter backstroke in Beijing and one in the 400 IM in London. He is the second-most decorated Olympic male swimmer, behind only Phelps. Over the years, the two often battled head-to-head in individual medleys and 200-meter freestyle events. Phelps retired (for good this time) after the Rio Games.
This summer, American men’s swimming is undergoing a massive changing of the guard, as the U.S. team enters an Olympics without at least one of its two biggest stars for the first time since 1996. That is a stunning stat to think about, particularly for a public that first met Phelps and Lochte as teenagers and watched them grow up, warts and all. Lochte’s legacy is far more muddied than Phelps’ is, certainly, but their histories in this sport will always be intertwined.
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As Lochte stepped out of the pool for the final time in Omaha, he embraced his competitors, including Michael Andrew, who easily won the race and will head to Tokyo as one of Team USA’s top medal hopes.
“This ain’t the end of the road,” Lochte said after the race during his NBC interview. “There’s a lot more I want to accomplish in the sport of swimming, whether it’s in the pool or outside of the pool making swimming bigger — that’s my biggest goal.
“But I’m enjoying it. I’m having fun teaching these younger kids everything that I’ve learned and carrying the torch like this guy,” he continued, gesturing at Andrew. “He’s going to represent USA well, and I’m proud.”
(Top photo: Al Bello / Getty Images)
Nicole Auerbach covers college football and college basketball for The Athletic. A leading voice in college sports, she also serves as a studio analyst for the Big Ten Network and a radio host for SiriusXM. Nicole was named the 2020 National Sports Writer of the Year by the National Sports Media Association, becoming the youngest national winner of the prestigious award. Before joining The Athletic, she covered college football and college basketball for USA Today. Follow Nicole on Twitter @NicoleAuerbach
