Ryan Lochte has faced scrutiny during the past year.
Between his reality TV show “What Would Ryan Lochte Do?” being cancelled in September, a torn MCL and sprained ACL in his left knee and a re-aggrevation of his knee at the Mesa Grand Prix in April, Lochte knows what it’s like for others to doubt him.
But he doesn’t care.
“To me it goes through one ear, out the other. I don’t pay attention to it, and I can’t, or else I’d probably quit swimming a long time ago,” the five-time Olympic gold medalist said on Tuesday, the day before the USA National Championships, in Irvine, Calif.
“But I mean, I feel like there’s always a bump in the road for me. It’s never a smooth path. I always prepared myself for the worst, and you know, I think this year has been the hardest year I’ve ever had in my entire life, just knee surgery, just tearing my knee like left and right, being out of the water for so long.”
Lochte said his knee is back to 100 percent, and it looked so after competition on Wednesday.
“(The doctors) said I should be in like a science book because of the way I recovered so quickly. They’re in shock,” Lochte said. “I’m supposed to be just getting back in the water a couple weeks ago, but I’ve been in the water for almost two months now. I healed up really quick.”
In the 100-meter freestyle preliminary heats, Lochte clocked in with a 49.21-second outing, good for eighth overall in the 78-swimmer field.
He placed second in the finals later that day, finishing in 48.96 seconds to claim a spot on the national team in the event.
His knee held up, but he expects more of himself as the week progresses
“I can’t expect best times,” Lochte said.
“It’s going to take time, and I know in the big picture, when it happens, it’s going to happen.”
Current Gators competing at National Championships: A total of 25 athletes on Florida’s 2014-15 roster and three who graduated in the spring are also competing at nationals, with 20 making their debut in the competition on Wednesday.
Elizabeth Beisel and Caeleb Dressel were the highlight of the bunch.
Beisel touched the wall in the 200-meter butterfly prelims with a time of 2:10.72 to finish sixth in the field and qualify for the ‘A’ cut finals. But she did not participate in the finals.
Dressel, the No. 1 recruit in the 2014 class according to swimswam.com, was the fastest current UF athlete in the 100m free, finishing 31st with a 49.93-second performance to earn a spot in the ‘C’ cut finals.
He finished eighth in the heat with a time of 51.30 seconds.
Day 2 will consist of five events — the 200-meter freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke, the 50-meter butterfly and the men’s 4x200-meter freestyle — and will see 14 UF athletes in the pool.
“This is a great opportunity for each individual to get some exposure and compete at a high level,” UF coach Gregg Troy said in a release. “This week will also be a good measure of how everyone’s training has been going this summer.”
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Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte smiles as he takes questions from the media at the U.S. swimming nationals news conference in Irvine, Calif., on Tuesday.
