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As Olympics Near, Ryan Lochte Not Ready To Let Sand Run Out Of Career Hourglass
- Updated: July 22, 2016
Don’t count on any sort of symbolic gesture. Probably not going to see goggles placed atop the starting block. Not going to see a cap laid in the pool to float away. Probably just going to see a wave to the jam-packed stands, and the meeting of eyes with family. Then, he’ll be gone, twenty-something Olympic medals unlikely to be matched – ever.
When Michael Phelps walks away from the sport after the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, he’ll follow a path that many athletes make at the end of an Olympiad: He’ll retire. Phelps traveled this road once before, of course, claiming he was finished after the London Games four years ago. This time, he means it, and since he’s going out the way he wants on this occasion, there’s no reason to think he’ll backpedal as the 2020 Games in Tokyo come into focus.
But what about the guy who has pushed Phelps the most? What are his plans?
“I’ve always said that I will stop swimming once I stop having fun,” said Ryan Lochte, Phelps’ longtime rival. “Right now, I’m finding more and more ways of enjoying the sport, and getting the love and passion for it that I had as a little kid. I’m finding it again. So, hint-hint, I don’t think this will be my last go-around. I’m not hanging up the Speedo just yet.”
In Rio, Lochte will embrace his lightest Olympic schedule since he made his Games debut in 2004. As was the case in Athens, Lochte will contest the 200 individual medley and race for the United States on the 800 freestyle relay, which is chasing a fourth consecutive Olympic crown. This time around, there will be no 400 individual medley. No 200 freestyle. No 200 backstroke. Since Lochte will celebrate his 32nd birthday just before the Opening Ceremony, the easier load could prove advantageous.
The Olympic schedule has never played into Lochte’s hands, and the Team USA veteran spent the past two Olympiads trying to pull off a difficult double – finals of the 200 backstroke and 200 medley in a tight timeframe. In both 2008 and 2012, Lochte went into the medley in depleted fashion. In …
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