World Record holder and Olympian Ryan Lochte will be making $34.10 an hour for some of his coaching responsibilities at Missouri State, and he will be working full-time.
On Sunday, news broke that Ryan Lochte would be taking an assistant coaching role at Missouri State University. Since then, numerous reports have emerged about Lochte’s salary with the program, and SwimSwam has spoken with Missouri State Head Coach Dave Collins to understand the full scope of his wage and responsibilities.
Lochte will be one of the assistants with the varsity program, and his wage for that position will be $34.10 an hour, with a target listed in the contract for $30,000 annually. These responsibilities are only technically considered part-time, but he will be doing other work with the program and in the community.
Editor’s Update: we have gotten many questions about why Ryan Lochte‘s pay rate is being reported as an hourly rate, which is different than the reporting on most contracts that rise to the level of newsworthiness. Lochte is a very unique case, where he is a newsworthy assistant coach who is not being paid a salary. Almost every D1 college assistant swim coach is paid a salary over the overtime exempt threshold, because then they can work 50 or 60 or 70 hours a week without being paid more – almost famously so. Lochte’s contract is not written that way – instead, he has agreed to an hourly wage with Missouri State University. That is why Lochte’s rate of pay is being reported differently than other coaches.
He will also be working as a member of the Missouri State Aquatics club team, a USA Swimming program out of the Missouri State pool, which is owned and run by Collins. He will not be working with any one group in particular, and will be coaching once a week, rotating between all of their seven training groups.
There will also be co-branded Lochte/Missouri State swim clinics and camps in and around Springfield, where Missouri State is located. This will help supplement his income and effectively make his overall role full-time.
Part of the reason Lochte’s contract with the Missouri State NCAA program is only technically part-time is to give him the flexibility to travel back to Gainesville once a month and run swim clinics in the area, which he has been doing since his retirement from competitive swimming.
His NCAA contract also includes bonuses for athlete performances. Each conference championship will result in a $750 bonus per team. Each individual and relay NCAA qualifier will lead to a $500 bonus. The men’s team has won six MVC titles, including the 2026 title.
The Missouri State program currently has another assistant coaching job listed, as Lochte’s role is newly created after Collins fundraised for the position. There is room for Lochte’s position to evolve over time.
Missouri state – roll out the age group swim camps! Lochte is a huge draw and swimmers will come if you build it.
I make more per hour than Ryan Lochte
this guy grew up in a swim coaching family at a pool every day of his childhood….with his experience id consider it a privilege to be coached by him once or twice a week. Missouri is lucky.
Curious how parents of swim recruits will perceive this hire. My *guess* is that some will think this is cool and give them something to brag about to their friends, while others may think, “nah” I don’t think this is the right role model for my kid. Any real parents with kids in recruiting pipeline want to weigh in? Is this a plus or a minus?
IN any event, the hire certainly gives MSU some press. There is one theory that ANY press is better than no press. Gets people talking, and puts MSU on some radars that otherwise wouldn’t be there.
I have a kid swimming at MSU and both he and our family believe this is a great opportunity! I mean Ryan has a wealth of swim knowledge to share with others! We trust Coach Collins to lead Ryan in the right direction and help him grow as a human being, as he does the athletes in his program. Ryan has chosen to be in an assistant role for a reason! Time will tell and I’d love to see a follow up on this next March!
On another note, it is crazy the number of people (both swim and non swim) that have seen this in the media and asked us about it! It’s definitely getting media attention! I’m truly… Read more »
It’s a lot like Boston College hiring Dara Torres
Except Dara Torres doesn’t know 1% of what Ryan L knows about swimming.
Trump is president, why should Lochte be a negative??
Pathetic
Some of these other comments got me thinking about Phelps/ Lochte… seems like Leon is like Phelps, and is gonna make 10s of millions with a good head on his shoulder, etc.
Obviously Bob has had a huge impact on Phelps’ career in more than just swimming and surely was involved in steering him in the right direction with business, and may be doing similar with Leon.
On the other hand you have Greg Troy, Lochte, and Dressel, who had Troy as a coach for the main years of ascendance into pro stardom/ olympic success. Is there any connection to Troy and maybe what he was or wasn’t able to do, guidance wise, that led these 2 to… Read more »
Gregg Troy has got a shady past
Oh man, in what ways?
https://concussioninc.net/?p=10806
Maybe Troy is purely a coach and Bowman is better pedagogically? Just a guess
I have a guess. If Lochte and Dressel were on Phelps’ level they’d make comparable money.
Dressel was about as close as anyone reasonably could be.
He was the undisputed best male swimmer on the planet for a full Olympic cycle.
Nah, Lochte was closer to Phelps. He just happened to compete against Phelps head-to-head. And despite that fact, Lochte has nearly twice as many medals as Dressel, and more golds than Dressel has medals of any color.
Yeah, Lochte had so many opportunities and was such a big name. The 2012 cycle cemented him as a household name, but being in all those epic races with Phelps in 2008 with all the eyes, and coming away with medals was worth more than the weight of the medals alone in a normal olympics.
I think Lochte is the second best male swimmer ever, I am just saying that acting like Dressel wasn’t a superstar is silly. for approximately 4 years he was the biggest name in swimming on the male side.
100% true
Went from Jeah to Jeet
Helluva makeover. Dude looks like Kash Patel in those videos.