Ryan Lochte
USA
Swimming
Overall Ranks
#7 among American Olympians
#5 among Male American Olympians
#3 among Swimmers
Olympic Results
2004
4x200m Freestyle Relay - Gold
200m Individual Medley - Silver
2008
4x200m Freestyle Relay - Gold
200m Backstroke - Gold
200m Individual Medley - Bronze
400m Individual Medley - Bronze
2012
4x100m Freestyle Relay - Silver
4x200m Freestyle Relay - Gold
200m Backstroke - Bronze
200m Individual Medley - Silver
400m Individual Medley - Gold
2016
4x200m Freestyle Relay - Gold
Total
Events - 14
Gold - 6
Silver - 3
Bronze - 3
Ryan Steven Lochte was born on August 3, 1984 in Rochester, New York, to a father who was a swimming coach, and when Ryan was in junior high school, he started seriously trying to be the best swimmer he could. After graduating from high school in 2002, he attended the University of Florida.
He qualified for his first Olympics in 2004 after coming in second to Michael Phelps in the 200m Individual Medley at the Olympic Trials. He started out by competing in the 4x200m relay, where he swam the second leg in both rounds. Phelps led off the final, giving the Americans a full second lead over Australia, the defending champs, and Lochte held off a charge from Italy to keep a lead of 0.39 seconds after his leg. Peter Vanderkaay stretched the lead to over a second after leg 3, but Ian Thorpe made a huge push in the anchor leg, nearly making the comeback, but America held on to win by 0.13 seconds, getting Lochte his first gold medal.
He made the final in the 200m Individual Medley after coming in a second behind Phelps in the semifinal, but Phelps was even better in the final, setting a new Olympic record, while Lochte was in a group of 3 more than 1.5 seconds behind that touched the wall almost simultaneously. As it turned out, Lochte took the silver by 0.02 seconds over George Bovell of Trinidad and Tobago, while Laszlo Cseh Jr. of Hungary missed a medal by 0.04 seconds.
At the 2007 World Championships, he won 2 golds and 3 silvers as he prepared for another Olympic run. He qualified for 3 individual events and a relay in Beijing, starting out with the 400m individual medley, where he was expected to challenge Phelps. That wouldn't happen, as Phelps beat his own world record by almost 1.5 seconds, and Lochte finished more than 4 seconds behind, taking the bronze medal behind Phelps and Cseh.
In the 4x200m relay, the B team set a new Olympic record in the heats, then were replaced in the final by Lochte and the stars, who were expected to break the world record. Phelps gave them a lead of over 2.5 seconds on the first leg, then Lochte stretched it to almost 4. The lead was over 5 seconds when the final swimmer jumped in, and they finished 5.14 seconds ahead of Russia, and broke the world record by nearly 4.5 seconds.
Next was the 200m Backstroke, where Aaron Peirsol was the defending champ, but Lochte was the defending world champ. At the Olympic trials, Peirsol had beaten Lochte and broken his world record, so this one was expected to be a tough battle. In the final, Arkady Vyatchanin of Russia took an early lead and held it through 150m, with Lochte and Peirsol tied at the final turn, but Vyatchanin faded down the stretch, and Lochte pulled ahead of both to win the gold medal and break the world record by 0.38 seconds.
He finished up in Beijing with the 200m Individual Medley. Many felt that Phelps was in danger of tiring out, but in the final, he set another world record and won the event by more than 2 seconds. Lochte was in third place for most of the race, behind Cseh, but fell to 4th at the final turn, but he turned in a strong finish, and ended up coming in third to take the bronze medal, just 0.02 seconds behind Cseh.
At the 2009 World Championships, he won 4 golds and a bronze, but lost his backstroke world record back to Peirsol, who has held it ever since. He won 5 golds and a bronze in 2011, and qualified to swim in 6 events in 2012 in London.
He started out in London with the 400m individual medley, where Phelps was the 2-time defending champ, but Lochte was the favorite, thanks to his defeats of Phelps at the world championships and the Olympic Trials. In the final, Chad le Clos of South Africa led at the first turn, just ahead of Lochte and Phelps, but Lochte took the lead by the end of the butterfly, then proceeded to pull away for the rest of the race, winning by 3.58 seconds in the second-fastest time in history to take the gold medal.
The next day he swam the anchor leg in the 4x100m relay, his first time competing in that event. The USA had a slight lead after the first leg, which Phelps extended to 0.76 seconds at the midway point. The lead was still half a second when Lochte started, but Yannick Agnel of France swam the fastest leg of the competition and caught and passed Lochte, leaving the Americans a silver medal.
His next event was the 200m freestyle, where he was the defending world champion and the favorite to win, but Agnel had different ideas. He led from the start, and finished 1.79 seconds ahead of anyone else, while Lochte fell from 2nd to 4th on the final lap, missing out on a medal for the first time in his Olympic career.
One day later, he swam the opening leg in the final of the 4x200m relay, where the USA had won 2 straight golds. He gave the Americans a lead of 0.98 seconds after the opening leg, and the next two swimmers stretched it to almost 4 seconds for Phelps, who easily brought it home for a gold medal by 3.07 seconds over France.
Next was the 200m backstroke, where he was the defending champ, and the favorite after Peirsol's retirement in 2010. He led through the final turn, but Ryosuke Irie of Japan and Tyler Clary of the USA were just behind him, and both were able to pass him on the final lap, with Clary setting a new Olympic record in winning gold, while Lochte took a disappointing bronze.
He finished up 30 minutes later in the 200m individual medley, where he was the defending world champion, but Phelps was going for a third straight gold. Phelps had a tiny lead over Lochte after the butterfly, Phelps' specialty, but pulled further ahead on the backstroke, which was Lochte's best stroke usually. He held on to the lead through the breaststroke, then held on as Lochte made a late charge in the freestyle, but fell 0.63 seconds short, and had to settle for silver.
By 2016, he was starting to age, but still qualified to compete in 2 events in Rio. The first was the 4x200m relay, which they had won 3 straight times, and they led the entire way in this one. Lochte swam the third leg, and was given a 2 second lead, and he kept that lead at 1.76 seconds when Phelps took the anchor leg, where he stretched it to 2.47 seconds to win the event for the 4th straight time.
He finished up with the 200m individual medley, where Phelps was the 3-time defending Olympic champ, while Lochte was the 4-time defending world champ. Lochte held a 0.01 second lead over Phelps after the backstroke, but faded after that, finishing in 5th place, the worst of his Olympic career in his final race.
During those Olympics, Lochte claimed that he and some teammates had been robbed at a gas station in Rio, but when more details came out, it turns out that the Americans had actually drunkenly vandalized the restroom at the gas station. Two years later, he received a 14-month suspension for taking a banned substance. He attempted to make the 2020 Olympic team, and reached several finals at the Olympic trials, but ultimately failed to qualify and retired from competitive swimming.
Though he was largely overshadowed by Phelps throughout his career, and won 4 of his gold medals in relays with Phelps, Lochte was a legitimately great swimmer in his own right. He set a world record in winning his backstroke gold, and won his individual medley gold very convincingly. His 12 total medals are the third-most ever for a swimmer behind only Phelps and Ledecky, making him one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
