Upon touching first in the men’s 200m IM at the World Championships American Ryan Lochte became one of the only male swimmers to ever four-peat an event at worlds.
The only other male swimmer ever to four-peat in an event at the World Championships is Australian living legend Grant Hackett. Hackett managed wins in the 1500m freestyle at all championships between 1998 and 2005.
The win for Lochte also made him just the second swimmer to medal in the same race at six consecutive world championships. Italy’s Frederica Pellegrini is the only other swimmer to have accomplished the feat.
Lochte battled it out with Thiago Pereira for a good portion of the race, but passed him on the breast to freestyle turn with his innovative underwater kick on his back. Pushing the pace home, Lochte churned towards the wall in order to touch for gold in 1:55.81, almost a full second ahead of Pereira.
Ryan Lochte‘s gold medal splits
- 50m – 25.10 (25.10)
- 100m – 54.39 (29.29)
- 150m – 1:27.73 (33.34)
- 200m – 1:55.81 (28.08)
That gave Lochte his fourth straight 200m IM victory since the 2009 World Championships in Rome. There the world record holder solidified his first 200m IM victory ever, and began an era of Lochte domination in the IMs.
Lochte’s 2009 victory was arguably the big turning point in his career. Although he had plenty of international success in the 200m backstroke where he won his first individual Olympic gold, the 200m IM truly became Lochte’s race at that point.
After that, Lochte emerged out of Michael Phelps’ shadow and became the best swimmer in the world in 2010. He began increasing his event repertoire, and started to truly establish himself as one of the most feared names in swimming.
The time for Lochte tonight marked his slowest 200m IM victory at a world championships. He had never been over 1:55 in a worlds final and won before this swim.
Lochte’s win here puts him in a great position heading towards the 2016 US Olympic Trials and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Lochte’s won individual Olympic gold in the 200m backstroke and 400m IM but has never won the 200m IM at an Olympic games.
2016 could be the game changer, but there’s a very good chance he will need to go up against longtime rival Phelps in order to claim gold there.
Lochte has swam just two individual events, although he could be selected for the remaining relays. Pereira led the backstroke and breaststroke legs before Lochte overtook the Brazilian midway through the final lap.
Although ryan won the race he looks very stiff in his races both 200 free aswell as im he seriously needs to improve
Lochte gave an interview for a Brazilian reporter and told he is working in new turns, and he is with only 3 weeks of work in his news turns.So, I think he will improve till next year.
I don’t see the one turn that has changed as having any measurable impact on this event.
Lochte’s winning time will be barely podium worthy next year. Going to need to improve over the next 12 months.
I think Hagino is the front runner at this point. Do we know if Phelps will be racing the 2IM at Nationals? Would be good to see where he is at with his training on the event.
One of my favourite swimmers of all time with Biondi and thorpe !! very good victory but he faded on the free leg a bit . Americans had a lot of problems to finish their races .
He had the fastest freestyle split in the field… I dunno, was kind of a weird race for him. He took it out slower than past IMs or the 200 free earlier this meet, and while he was ok at the end he didn’t make up the difference. Finish wasn’t the best. I wouldn’t bet on him getting back to the 1:54s again but hard to say what will win Olympic gold next year. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him triage the schedule and drop the 200 free, just focus on one event plus relays. With Agnel and Hagino back in, hard to envision a medal in the freestyle.
I thought he would have been closer to 1.54 than he was considering the solid times he put up in the 2Free swims.
Again, he has the speed, just needs to find that endurance again.
He actually didnt have the fastest free split in the field… Wang Shun from china was a half second faster than him at 27.6.
Men 200m Medley (italian tv)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x30lqod_men-s-200m-medley-final-world-swimming-championships-kazan-2015_sport
One of the great swimmers of this generation! He may not be in the same shape that he once was, but glad to see him out there still winning.
Seems to me like Lochte either has a training issue or he’s just aging. I would prefer the first, for the sake of team USA.
That’s what I assumed too, but then Cseh just threw that logic out the window with his blazing 2Fly time!
Endurance seems to be the issue here, maybe he needs some of the Florida yardage back in his practice!