It seems as though Ryan Lochte is in great shape heading into short course worlds in Doha, Qatar, which start on the 3rd of December, at least according to himself and his coach David Marsh.
“This past week in particular Ryan had his best week of training since he’s been in Charlotte,” Marsh said.
Lochte joined Marsh’s ranks among the SwimMAC Carolina training group in Charlotte in October of 2013 and has had plenty of success there switching over to more sprint-based training.
Since joining Marsh’s group, Lochte’s earned himself a gold and two silvers from Pan Pacs this past summer. There’s no doubt that Lochte’s medal haul has been on a decline since what can arguably be described as his best season in 2011, but he’s confident that he can once more achieve those storied results.
“I’m doing things differently in my training and hoping that I could be back on top like I did back in 2011, ” Lochte said. “So far this season has been going a lot better than last season…I mean no injuries thus far so knock on wood.”
Last season, a knee injury caused by a run-in with an excited fan held him back and kept him out of competitions for a portion of this season, but with reports that Lochte’s knee is completely fine, which includes confirmation from him, it appears that now the focus is to get back to the top.
Short course worlds could be the answer Lochte’s been looking for as he’s demonstrated that he’s one of the best if not the best short course swimmer in the entire world. With a storied short course career spanning five World Championships, Lochte has earned himself a grand total of 30 medals, 20 of which are gold.
In Doha, Lochte is slated to swim six events which include the 200 free, 200 backstroke, 200 IM, 100 IM, 100 fly, and 50 fly. Lochte already has medals from previous worlds in all of the events other than the 50 fly, an event which is rather new to Lochte and fits in to his new sprint oriented training.
“I love short course meters. I love the turns. I love the underwaters,” Lochte said. There’s no doubt that having some of the best underwater swims in the world attribute to his large short course medal haul and make him prime competitor for this year’s competition.
Lochte has had two meets this season to prepare for Worlds, both of which were in Italy. At the latest meet, the Bolzano International, Lochte came home with five medals which included a gold in the 100m backstroke, an event where he previously held the world record. There he swam a 51.34.
With the meet creeping ever closer, Lochte’s confident that team USA will be one of the driving forces at the meet stating, “we’re just going to do what we always do and go out there and try to prove to the world that we’re the best and just try to get it done.”
When asked what the plan is after Worlds Lochte said, “just hammering it down and getting ready for world championships this summer.”
With this summers World Championships being the focus meet for Lochte and the majority of the United States’ national team, it leaves few major international competitions for Lochte to re-establish himself as one of the best multi-event swimmers in the world heading up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
For now however, Lochte said that he’s, “taking each swim meet at a time,” and will keep everyone guessing as to what he’ll swim when Rio rolls around.
good
is that you mr. phelps? lol