Lochte has 12 Olympics medals. Of them, 10 came when Phelps was in the same race. In five head-to-head matchups, Lochte was against Phelps, with the only win coming in London's IM when he won gold and Phelps was a stunning fourth. They shared medals five other times in relays four gold, one silver. That sums it up best. Half the times Phelps and Lochte have been in the same race, they've been on the same team.
You can build a technical rivalry off that but not one that leads to ready-room stare downs. One thing you'll hear a lot in the next 24 hours is that Lochte had the misfortune of coming up at the wrong time. If he wasn't born one year before Phelps, he'd go down as one of the greatest swimmers ever. There's three problems with that statement.
Lochte will go down as one of the greatest swimmers ever. It's not like there can only be one all-time great per eta. This is not an exclusive term among contemporaries think Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
The Floridian has 12 overall medals as nice as it'd be to assume he'll win the 13th on Thursday, it's very much up in the air , which puts him into a tie with two other American swimmers for the second - most by any U. But those two swimmers - Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres - didn't have as many individual medals combined as Lochte does. Why so few relays for Lochte?
His specialities were the middle-distance swims, so without a penchant for sprinting he was almost always left off the two 4x relays - freestyle and medley - that other swimmers load up on. The only sprint in his 12 medals came when he won silver as part of the 4x freestyle relay in London.
Simply put: Lochte is one of the finest swimmers the world has ever seen and he has the trophy cabinet to back it up. Lochte's record wouldn't be that different if Phelps had decided to play lacrosse instead of swim. This is where the memory can play tricks. They went gold-bronze twice too, in both Beijing IMs. We're leaving world championships out of this. The swimming world might care but the once-every-four-years crowd only measures these things by medals of the Olympic variety.
So, Lochte would theoretically have two more golds and two more silvers if Phelps was instead just some former high-school athlete who frequents the bars in Canton. That's a more impressive resume, to be sure, but it doesn't change the story as much as you'd think. Yet, this scenario is irrelevant.
Here's why. Phelps made Lochte better. This is easy to qualify but impossible to quantify. But if you believe, as I do and wrote about last night , that training and performance can be affected by contemporaries - that the idea Phelps pushed Lochte to be better and vice-versa is true - then you have to assume they were that much greater because of the other. When they touched in the semifinal on Wednesday, the pair bumped fists then stood for an interview together, discussing how much they enjoy swimming against one another.
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Although Lochte had been unable to beat Phelps through Beijing, it would be unfair to state Lochte was not making progress. His times in the medley events continued to drop and he was a regular presence on international podiums. At the Olympics in Beijing, he again defeated Peirsol and further lowered his global standard.
I know I can beat him. I always feel like I can win. With Beijing in the past, Lochte used the summer of to ascend to the top of the world in the medley events — albeit with Phelps absent and focusing on other events.
At the World Championships, Lochte doubled in the I. Competing at the United States National Championships, Lochte finally got the best of Phelps in a high-profile race, winning the individual medley by more than a second.
The momentum generated by Lochte carried into the World Championships, where Lochte won four individual gold medals and beat Phelps in the freestyle and individual medley. While Phelps was skipping practices and not as dedicated as he was earlier in his career, Lochte changed his diet and elevated himself to World Swimmer of the Year. Races are always won by people who are most prepared. Give Ryan credit.
I remember back in and when I was trying to climb and climb and, finally, I got there. Being back in this position, I think, will be kind of fun.
The Olympic campaign brought a split decision to the rivalry. While Lochte beat Phelps at the Olympic Trials in the individual medley, the outcome at the Olympic Games was surprising. It was the first time since his Olympic debut in Sydney in which Phelps contested an event at the Olympics and walked away without a medal.
Phelps rebounded when the men clashed in the individual medley. Defeating Lochte by. It was then off to retirement for Phelps. After prevailing at the Olympic Trials, Phelps punctuated the rivalry with his fourth straight Olympic gold in the medley.
Three years ago, USA Swimming suspended Lochte for 14 months after he posted on Twitter a photo of himself receiving an intravenous infusion without a required therapeutic use exemption. He was not charged with using a banned substance. Today, Lochte is a husband and father of two young children whose playroom he used for a recent interview. His family will be at the trials in Omaha, where Lochte is entered in six events and thought to have his best chance of making the team in the meter individual medley.
He is scheduled to swim his first race Monday. Lochte said he was training harder than ever, and his performances at meets were worse than ever.
Beginning to lose hope, Lochte said, he reached out to Michael Phelps. Phelps and Lochte, the second-most decorated male swimmer in Olympic histor y with 12 medals, were teammates and rivals on the U. Olympic teams starting in Their relationship was tested after Lochte found himself embroiled in controversy at the Olympics.
At the time, Lochte said he tried to get advice from Phelps, who had faced scrutiny after being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in and Let me know, I need help. But earlier this year, Lochte said, he reached out to Phelps, who had struggled in and out of the pool before winning five gold medals at the Olympics.
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