Talented swimmers such as Ryan Lochte often are described using appropriate hyperbole. To call Lochte a fish looks like an overused metaphor on paper — that is, until he begins to explain just how meaningful his participation in the Athens Bulldog Swim Club Grand Slam is to him.
“I really believe in everything happens for a reason,” Lochte said. “The only thing that I do regret (is) that I wasn’t able to be in that water because once I’m in that water I’m at home and I feel normal. It is my home.”
But what sets Lochte apart from any truly aquatic creature is exactly what took him away from the water.
A freak collision with a fan tore the MCL in his left leg in November 2013. The Bulldog Grand Slam marks only his second meet since the injury.
“This meet is exactly what guys like Ryan and the world-class swimmers needed,” said David Marsh, Lochte’s coach at SwimMAC in Charlotte, N.C.
The Bulldog Grand Slam succeeds April’s Arena Grand Prix in Mesa, Ariz., where Lochte first competed after the injury and fellow world-class swimmer Michael Phelps returned from the cushy world of retirement. Lochte aggravated his knee again while swimming against Phelps in the 100-meter butterfly, an event Lochte only recently adopted as his own.
That addition has made every step of Lochte’s rehabilitation process all the more critical.
“Because he’s come down to more of a 100, 200 specialist, explosiveness is more of a factor now,” Marsh said. “So the knee would probably be more critical (now) than the races where you had time to get into races a little more carefully.”
During his time off that left knee, much of Lochte’s training revolved around upper-body work to help pull his way through the water — so much so that he said he “never wants to go back and do pulling again.”
“I can just feel every stroke that I’m doing that I’m pulling a lot more water than I have before,” Lochte said.
After strengthening his upper body and his knee to regain that necessary explosiveness, Lochte pulled right passed Phelps in the 100 butterfly in Arizona.
Lochte did not compete Thursday, as both events were distance events, but will face Phelps yet again in the 100 butterfly Friday in Gabrielsen Natatorium.
Although he will try to replicate that success, Lochte isn’t necessarily looking for the same outcome.
“Honestly I hope I don’t win,” Lochte said. “I say that because it would make me mad.”
Phelps will swim in the eighth heat of preliminaries Friday, and Lochte will swim in the ninth. Friday’s finals are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.
“I just want to feel that energy, that excitement of getting on those blocks and racing,” Lochte said. “I’ve missed that. That’s all I want. I really don’t want to win because it will make me more hungry.”
“That’s what I need right now.”
That, and the water of course.
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