For the first time in his swimming career Ryan Lochte has stated he plans to participate in what athletes refer to as “dry” season “a month or two out” from the Olympic Games in Rio, which begin in one weeks time.
Dry season refers to a time period where swimmers or athletes don’t consume any alcohol, usually taking place in the months leading up to the biggest competition of the season.
Lochte has never participated in it in his previous three Olympic Games, five World Championships or any other major competition, but has been giving it a try in the lead-up to Rio.
“I’m just really bad at that,” Lochte told Omnisport recently. “If I’m going out to a nice restaurant I, of course, want to have a beer or anything like that, but dry season? I’ve never done it in the past; we had it in college but I never listened to it. But it’s something that I want to do for Rio — why not try it?”
Giving up alcohol prior to the Games aligns with Lochte’s change of lifestyle over the past few years, as he is now more focused on nutrition and recovery than he was at previous Olympics.
“I can always train with the best, but before I was always carefree and never really took care of my body outside the pool,” Lochte said. “But now I’ve been really working on eating healthy, getting the right amount of protein and the calories that I need to help me recover.”
Lochte infamously got an intestinal virus at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing prior to the Games, and proceeded to eat McDonalds for the rest of the Games to avoid getting sick.
Those days are behind him, but after the Games he still plans to take a little bit of time off and have some fun before getting back into training for the 2017 World Championships. He plans to rent a house on the Brazilian coast after the Games.
“I want to stay there for a week and for once in my life just relax and not have to worry about anything — just be free and have fun,” Lochte said.
Lochte competes in the 800 free relay and 200 IM in Rio, beginning with the relay on August 9th.
Read the article via Omnisport here.
The comments you’re all making are more entertaining than the article, which is very good in its own right! LOL
I like Ryan’s honesty, but he’s the quintessential man-child. At the age of 32, he’ll *finally* get the chance to relax for a week on a Brazillian beach? Makes an old wage slave like me jealous.
Some drinking when you’re in your prime doesn’t hurt. At his age he needs every tool in the bag; and a humble brag, apparently.
Let him make his choice. Just curious when this dry season started for him. Even a week before Olympics is incredible for him. Best of swims to him.
He’s an animal. This is also probably why he needs extra high waisted suits to cover about 40% of his gut
If you haven’t noticed, he’s a total leg-dominant swimmer (evidenced by his 2bk scy times & his sub :23 lcm kick underwater)…more compression the better
Ryan Lochte is a leg dominant swimmer? More compression is better? This is all shocking news to me and the rest of the swimming community
This is astounding. To say that I am at a loss for words is an understatement. One of the GOATS has never gone dry? I am also torn. I know not whether to think “could he really be that ignorant?” or “how could someone so good care so little?” There are only two options here: One, Ryan knows that alcohol lowers testosterone levels, raises estrogen levels, lowers HGH secretion, reduces sleep quality, and he simply does not care. Or two, Ryan does not know that alcohol does all of those things, in which case…
Either way, I am shocked. I am going to give young Ryan the benefit of the doubt and assume that he knows alcohol is horrible for… Read more »
Saw all of the dislikes, didn’t bother reading the post
Lol if you think you can judge an Olympic swimmer for his habits, go beat him yourself, you’re literally ignorant. Noone has to do anything because you said so, and how swimmers treat their body isn’t your concern. Go swim a 400 IM, probably can’t even break 5.
The sheer amount of negative comments shows just how out of touch the mainstream swimming community is regarding the latest alcohol / performance science, and shows how little they care as well. Same goes for you, Alex.
Ryan came to our city and did a fundraiser for our learn to swim. He was invited out to a dinner and he had no alcohol
I was talking with my wife the other day after the 200 IM, when Ryan L., swum to 2nd place. She and I both agree that Ryan will win Gold at the 2016 Olympics and I’m confident that he really has a fantastic shot at a Gold in his individual event. “When times are tough, it’s when the tough get going”! Good Luck Ryan!
I like Ryan, but gold seems very far away.
He had a groin injury, wonder how that affected him in practice.
I truly don’t think the groin injury plays nearly as much as his training style. I honestly just don’t think that David Marsh put in the amount of training to get his guys to where they needed to be at the trials. Lochte missing his 400 im, 200 free, all endurance-style races that required an extra layer of workload. Look at who did excel, phelps, Dwyer, and who were they with? Bowman, who doesn’t mind hitting the yardage hard. It’s not that Marsh is a bad coach, I think he’s a top 5 all time coach. But, I also think he came in too shallow on yardage for taper, and thus didn’t finish it off properly. Yes, it’s easy to… Read more »
I think alcohol should be kept at a minimum in the off season. As Phelps said, keeping it away from him did wonders to his body.
1:52.94 200 fly
50.45 100 fly
1:54.75 200 im