With another 2-6 inches of snow expected to accumulate in Charlotte by Thursday afternoon, Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte has bundled up for the day, and will try again to make his trip to Orlando on Friday.
After speaking to Lochte on the phone, SwimMAC coach David Marsh tells Mel Stewart on deck today that the newest plan is for Lochte to ride out the worst of it today in Charlotte, and then try to fly again on Friday. That will mean that he’s going to miss both Thursday and Friday’s swimming, but with conditions expected to drastically improve for Friday (the sun is supposed to peek its head out and temperatures are expected to get into the mid-40’s), all should be good for the 100 free and 200 back on Saturday.
Even with only a third of his races, Marsh says that this is still an important meet for him to be at because of getting back into racing after the injury. Lochte will be on a much briefer timeline than much of his competition in terms of number of races (and Marsh tends to believe in racing his swimmers a lot), so every opportunity is worth it.
Coach Marsh should have insisted that they leave a day or two earlier with the rest of the team. Then again, we never know what went behind that decision. maybe no flight tickets etc.
I agree.
Even I, on the other side of the world, knew that the last blast of winter storm was going to hit the east coast, and so it doesn’t make sense at all why Lochte was not trying to fly to Orlando a day earlier like most of his clubmates.
Coach Marsh must be peeved!