Ryan Lochte readily admits that he swam awful in the 200-meter individual medley at the Orlando Grand Prix last weekend.
“Right from the start, I messed up everything in that race possible. I was just lucky to come out on top,” Lochte said in this video, posted on Swimswam.com. “Off the start, my hands weren’t together. I was diving in like an age grouper. My kickouts weren’t good at all. My strokes were just choppy. I didn’t build into each wall, wasn’t finishing my kick on my breaststroke. Freestyle — I don’t even know what happened in freestyle. I was just like, ‘whatever.’”
Lochte won the event in a time of 2:01.32, which is more than seven seconds slower than his world record of 1:54.00. Tyler Clary finished second in 2:02.91, and Dwyer finished third in 2:03.39.
Slower times at this point in the season are not a surprise to Lochte, nor are they a surprise to many swimming fans. Lochte is known for his difficult training regimen and few expect him to swim quickly early in the season.
But the Orlando Grand Prix was off, even for this point of the year, Lochte said. And that wasn’t the only race he executed poorly, according to the 11-time Olympic medalist.
“I mean, there’s so many mistakes I’ve made this whole meet. I’ve been trying different things, different racing strategies, different techniques, technical things on my strokes,” Lochte said. “It’s just been an experimental meet.”
Lochte said his training has been interrupted by the filming of his reality show, called “What Would Ryan Lochte Do?” The show is scheduled to begin airing on E! in April.
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