According to his agent, Erika Wright, Ryan Lochte will be anchoring the men’s 400 free relay in tonight’s finals.
There were a lot of questions surrounding this relay order; Lochte didn’t swim the 100 free in the finals at the Olympic Trials, but based on how well he’s been swimming, most speculated that if given the opportunity he could be one of the top four in the United States.
Lochte’s best ever time from a flat-start is a 48.16 from 2009 at US Nationals, but that was done in polyurethane. In 2010, he swam a 48.83 at US Nationals. In 2012, his best is a 48.91 from the Olympic Trials, though he’s already been far faster overall at this meet than he was in Omaha.
He will be joined by Nathan Adrian and Cullen Jones, who were 1st and second at the Olympic Trials in the race, and Michael Phelps. Interestingly, Phelps will swim 2nd, whereas he typically is allowed to lead off this relay. The US has given that honor to Adrian instead, which should be good preparation for his individual race.
1. Nathan Adrian
2. Michael Phelps
3. Cullen Jones
4. Ryan Lochte
Russia
1. Andrey Grechin
2. Nikita Lobintsev
3. Vlad Morozov
4. Danila Izotov
Australia
1. James Magnussen
2. Matt Targett
3. Eamon Sullivan
4. James Roberts
France
1. Amaury Leveaux
2. Fabien Gilot
3. Clement Lefert
4. Yannick Agnel
Funny how CARDINAL had a lot to say early in this thread (“3:07 for AUS, mark my words” and “48.5 for Phelps”), then when the race started – crickets!!
Yeah, that guy’s a douche. Not only for those comments, but he called out someone’s grammar in this thread.
The most maddening thing was Lochte in the interview afterwards: “We put our four best guys on the relay.” Who’s he trying to kid?
Haven’t you heard? Lochte thinks he’s the best thing since sliced bread, better then Phelps even! What a joke. lol
Winning gold would have been great, but the silver is still good given the great competition. Awesome swim by Phelps. Second fastest split in the entire race. Only Agnel was faster.
also, why does Lochte’s agent need to announce he was swimming on the relay? Isn’t that a bit odd?
I agree, totally inappropriate to have your PR person making the announcement.
I don’t think he asked her to do that. considering she deleted it quickly
same for Phelps – even though after ’08 everyone thought he was superhuman – he’s not. It is o.k. – good for kids to see that everyone can have a bad day and a bad race…and then you have to shake it off and get back to racing. That’s the best lesson! So, good for Phelps 🙂
I think Lochte forgot to put his grill in and turn his brain off before anchoring that relay.
whoops i forgot, Lochtes brain is always turned off. my bad.
So while we blame Troy lets go ahead and bash the other US mens coaches as well… Cause it is ALL their fault Agnel had an amazing swim.
I have a feeling Troy didn’t personally tell you his plans to deliberately leave Michael off… I don’t see that