Ryan Lochte stood behind the blocks and bobbed his head.
As the No. 1 seed in the Bulldog Grand Slam’s A final of the 200-meter individual medley Sunday, Lochte requested a walk-up song that prophesied his finish.
Drake’s “0 to 100” filled Gabrielsen Natatorium as Lochte and his competitors, which included Georgia’s Chase Kalisz, Nic Fink and Ty Stewart, position themselves on the blocks.
“0 to 200” might have been a touch more fitting, for that is exactly what Lochte did “real quick,” as the song says. After establishing a healthy lead in the opening butterfly leg, Lochte stayed nearly a full body-length ahead of second-place-finisher Kalisz to win it in 1:58.65.
Kalisz finished in 1:59.65 and Tyler Clary secured third place in 2:01.32.
The weekend’s Bulldog Grand Slam was Lochte’s second meet after sustaining an MCL tear to his left knee in November. After aggravating that injury in his first meet back — April’s Grand Prix in Mesa, Ariz. — while swimming against Michael Phelps, Lochte’s SwimMAC Carolina coach David Marsh chose to pull the swimmer from the final day of that meet.
Lochte’s 200 IM on Sunday earned him the 10th best time in the world this year and places him as the No. 1 American in the event.
“The time, I mean it was decent. I’m not really satisfied with it,” Lochte said. “I’m really never satisfied with any of my swims.”
Lochte said his knee felt much better during the breaststroke leg and the entire race as a whole than it had earlier in the day.
“It was a little shaky this morning,” Lochte said. “It feels better when I push it than when I just go easy, so I think I just need to push it all the time.”
In his second and final event of the day, the 100 freestyle, Lochte stood statuesque, indifferent to the tune preceding the 100-meter freestyle. He was not the event’s top seed, but rather the second to Phelps.
As “Cotton-Eyed Joe” blared from the speakers, Lochte looked over to his right.
“Did you pick this song?” he mouthed to Phelps in the lane next to him.
Phelps laughed and the crowd clapped along. Phelps had handed off the song selection to North Baltimore Aquatic Club teammate Conor Dwyer and Lochte could only shake his head in disapproval.
Although Phelps was the 100 freestyle disc jockey of the day, he was not the event’s champion. NBAC teammate Yannick Agnel upset Phelps in 49.37 seconds. Phelps finished in 49.42 seconds and Dwyer rounded out the top three in 49.53. Lochte took fourth place at 49.64.
“I’m not really too pumped about tonight,” Phelps said. “As soon as I took my first stroke, it felt kind of blah.”
Of the flaws in his race, Phelps said: “It’s just old habits. Just kind of running out of gas and swiped my arm over (in the last stroke).”
Lochte was not too pleased with his 100 either.
“I hate to lose,” Lochte said. “But at the same time, it makes me go back for the next two and a half weeks and really zero in and make sure every practice that I have for the next two and a half weeks, in and out of the pool, is perfect.”
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