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U.S. TEAM OLYMPIC TRIALS: SWIMMINGJune 23, 2012Ryan LochteOMAHA, NEBRASKA THE MODERATOR: Hello everyone, joined up here by Ryan Lochte. You guys know him. We're going to do the same thing that we did earlier. Ryan, how is training going for you? RYAN LOCHTE: I haven't really complained at all this year. It's going good. We actually‑‑ this has been probably one of the longest years of my life, I feel like, but I guess the time is here and we'll see how it goes this weekend. Q. Ryan, why has this been one of the longest years? RYAN LOCHTE: I think since after Worlds, I kinda just wanted‑‑ after last summer I kinda just wanted the Olympics to already come. I've been training for so long for this moment, it just kinda felt like it took forever. Q. You've entered a whole bunch of events. Can you clarify exactly which ones you're planning to swim? RYAN LOCHTE: I mean, I guess‑‑ how many events am I in? Eleven? That's a lot! I don't know what exactly what events I'm still going to do. I know there's four, for certain. Those are the events that I've done pretty much my whole entire life, the 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 Free and 200 Backstroke. I know I'm doing those four, and the other 7 we will decide later. We'll probably take each day at a time and see how I feel and if I'm up for it, I'll keep swimming. Q. Ryan, what is a conceivable or the possibilities for an event load you could carry? How many‑‑ what kind of range? And if you could talk about going into this meet how is your rivalry with Michael Phelps? RYAN LOCHTE: In 2008 Michael Phelps set the limit, eight world records, eight gold medals. That's amazing. But he's human, he's not a fish or anything like that. He's just like all of us, and he trained really hard to get there. So I know it's possible, and I know eight is possible. I'm not going for a number or how many I'm going for. The reason why I swim is because I love swimming. I love to race. I'm going to step on the blocks and race as many times as my body can handle. I don't know if that will be one or it could be eleven. We'll just have to wait and see. And the rivalry between me and Michael Phelps, we go back to almost 2004, since we've been race and go for so long it was just him always beating me. After 2008, I changed some things in my training and in my eating habits.  I've gotten a lot faster, so now I think definitely, especially going into this meet and hopefully London, is probably going to be one of the biggest rivalries ever. I think. Q. Obviously looking at the rivalry with Phelps, but I'm curious about the rivalry with Australia. We like to think it's a special one. What do you think about London and who is going to reign in the pool, and how our guys are looking? RYAN LOCHTE: No offense, but I got to go for USA! I know the past years that I've been on the Olympic Team we have a big target on our back. We're kinda the team to beat. But you know what? Every World Championships, every Olympics, there is always a team right there wanting to beat us and there is no doubt in my mind Australia will be right there with us trying to beat us. Q. What are your expectations in terms of time here? Do you feel able to be close to the times you set last year in Shanghai? RYAN LOCHTE: Honestly that's the plan. I don't plan on getting slower! I hope I'm faster. You know what? I guess this Olympic Trials is not so much about time it's about getting your hand on the wall first and making that Olympic Team and maybe later on you'll worry about the time if needed.   Right now I'm just right where I want to be, and I know I'm in better shape than last year so we'll see what happens. Q. You said you will race as much as your body can handle. How is your body now better prepared than last year in World's? RYAN LOCHTE: I can honestly say that since '08, going into the Olympic Trials in '08, I'm definitely a lot faster. I know my body can handle more. Right now I'm still not all right there. I still have about two more days of rest and I feel every day I'm getting closer to where I really need to be. These next two days are definitely going to change a lot. Q. Ryan, I know you said you will swim what your body can handle. What would you like to do? If your body cooperates, what would you want to do? RYAN LOCHTE: I would swim every event possible. That's what I love to do! I love just getting up on the blocks and racing the people next to you. Trying to put your hand on the wall first. It doesn't matter what event, what stroke, I just love to race. I honestly don't know. If I could swim 'em, I would swim all 11 but I don't think my coach would allow that. Q. Ryan, what would you say are the odds that Michael Phelps will be in the 400 IM with you on Monday? RYAN LOCHTE: I sure hope he is. I mean, he is the world's best swimmer ever. I love racing against him. It's fun. He is one of the hardest racers I feel like, in the world. He will go toe‑to‑toe with you until the end, and that's excitement for me. I really hope he does swim that. Q. Ryan, follow up on that. Michael Phelps may be the world's best swimmer ever, but is he going to be the best swimmer in this meet? Do you feel like you have an advantage over him? RYAN LOCHTE: Honestly I'm going to have to let that swimming talk this next week. Then you guys can decide who is the best. Q. You said that this is your "time" this is your "Olympics" if it's not the medal count, what would make it your Olympics? RYAN LOCHTE: That's hard to say because honestly I feel like this is my time. I have put in, definitely, the work and it's something that I believe so strong that I know I can make this happen. Like I said, I'm not going for a medal count, I'm just going to go out there and do my best and I don't know how many events I'll make; we'll find out at this meet. I guess we'll have to go from there and see what happens. Q. Ryan, can you give a few details on how you changed your diet and your training? You said after '08 you changed them. How unique do you believe these changes are to swimming? RYAN LOCHTE: I mean, I guess it's just‑‑ it's proven itself. I've just gotten faster since after '08. I definitely wasn't happy with the outcome in '08 and I wanted to get faster. There were different things I had to in my training like I picked up an extra weight session, and I don't know if you guys all heard of it or you already know but the Strong Man competitions on TV, I started doing that. I started doing that every Sunday. It's just‑‑ we kinda‑‑ me and my weight coach back home, we kinda made it to where it will help me and not hurt me. I didn't get too big, I got a lot stronger. There are different things that helped me in the pool, doing the Strong Man, that was one of the big things. The other one was eating. I changed my eating habits dramatically.  Pretty much, no more fast food or junk food. No more candy, soda, every once in a while‑‑ don't get me wrong, I'm not a health freak, every once in a while I have to splurge and get those potato chips or something, but for the most part I started watching what I ate and I saw a big difference in my training. Instead of having one or two practices that were good back‑to‑back, after I started eating healthier I started seeing weeks and weeks that were great. It definitely is one of the key things in my training, my eating. Q. Your face lights up when you talk about racing against Michael Phelps, certainly sports fans enjoy watching the two of you compete against each other, but why do you enjoy the rivalry as much as you do? RYAN LOCHTE: I love a challenge. He is one of the world's best swimmers ever! For me to be in the same era as him and be in the same events as him and being able to race him to the finish, it's awesome! I love it! I get so‑‑ I get so excited to step on the blocks to try to race him. Q. Ryan, coming into this year, it was similar to how Michael came into '08, you had a lot of chance to be on the cover of Vogue, a lot of "out of the water" stuff. How do you balance that with London and not get distracted? RYAN LOCHTE: I think this year it was definitely hard for me. I wasn't used to this. I wasn't used to going to photo shoots and doing celebrity things. I wasn't used to that. One of the good things that I was able to do is balance that out with my swimming. So no matter where I went, I knew I had obligations to go places for my sponsors or things like that, but wherever I went I made sure there was a pool there or if there wasn't a pool I would be running or doing some kinda workout. So I was always staying fit. Even though I had to do these things and it was a distraction, for the most part I was right on target. Q. Ryan, we hear everybody talk about your training and we saw through the meets leading up to this how you kind of worked yourself almost to death and swimming in briefs and whatever to make it. Why do you think you enjoy that part of swimming, the training, the lonely hours and the hard work? RYAN LOCHTE: Wearing a banana hammock in season is not so much fun, any swimmer can tell you that; it's not fun. You're at a disadvantage. You know what? I like it. I don't like losing. I love to win. But I like that challenge of getting up there and knowing that you're beat up, you're tired than probably everyone, you're more tired, and just going up there and trying to race 'em. If I can keep up with them or beat them in season, I know that at the end of the season I'll be right there. Q. Why do you think the training part of it, when you're back home in Gainesville, do you enjoy that as much as people say and how hard Greg works you? RYAN LOCHTE: I do. I love working hard. It's fun. If I could do it and there was no tape perfecting down I would just work hard all the time. After you do something great like in practice or something you get that boost like, yeah, let's do it again! I love working hard. At times it's hard because going back‑to‑back to practices and pushing your body to the limit, it's hard but you know at the end it's going to be worth it. Q. Do you think the success you've had over the last couple of years and sort of rising to the top, do you think it's changed you in any way? Have you noticed any difference in the Ryan Lochte four, five years ago and today? RYAN LOCHTE: I think I'm still the same old Ryan. I don't think I've changed. I still love doing crazy stuff like skate board and go surfing, I was skate boarding a couple of days a don't tell my coach, though, I was skate boarding onramps and stuff back home. Still the same 'ole person. Q. Ryan, just a little bit of a follow‑up to the Strong Man stuff you were talking about. And when you put you and Michael together, you don't exactly look like body clones.  Maybe self‑analyze what makes you guys good at what you do. RYAN LOCHTE: Honestly the thing that separates good swimmers from great swimmers is knowing how to push your body to limits where other people don't want to go. What I mean by that is like in practice, you get swimmers that start fatiguing or start hurting. I get that all the time, but once I get that feeling, I use that as a motivator and I turn that into energy. When I start getting fatigued, that's when I push my body harder. That's when I know what separates you from getting up to the top to getting above that. I know that me and Michael, we have definitely found that way, and I guess that's why we're good at swimming. Q. Ryan, you talked about the distractions of the photo shoots and how unusual things like that have been over the year. If things go as well as you hope they will he will, the distractions are only going to get multiplied after the Games. You saw what happened to Michael after '08, would you embrace the chance now that you wouldn't have to train to do all of this off‑the‑pool thing or would you dread that exposure? RYAN LOCHTE: I wouldn't dread it because all these photo shoots and stuff that I've done, it's fun. It's nice not to do a photo shoot in a Speedo. I'm actually in clothes, suits and stuff. So I'm enjoying it. But after this, whether it be Trials or the Olympics, I'm definitely going to keep swimming. So whether there is more fame or not, I'm going to balance it out the way I have done this year. Q. Did any of your sponsors float the idea of a bonus for winning so many medals like Speedo did with Michael in 2008? How would you have felt about that? Would you have embraced that or would you have wanted to shy away from concrete numbers? RYAN LOCHTE: Honestly, that kind of stuff, I know in my contracts I do have bonuses, but I honestly don't pay attention to that, because once I start thinking about the money, thinking about how many golds or medals, that's when I feel like swimming will probably no longer be fun for me. I told myself I'll quit swimming once I stop having fun, and right now I'm having a blast. I'm not thinking about the money or medals or anything else, I'm just having fun racing. Q. How do you look at these Trials system? In Holland we have limits and a year long to get the limits and one who gets the west time goes in, do you feel like the Trials are fair way to assess the Olympics? And how do you feel about them being so close to the Olympics? RYAN LOCHTE: The U.S. Team, we're used to it, we're used to having the Trials before the Olympics, and I think it's fair because in the Olympics you only get one shot, too. I feel like it's great for us, for our Trials, because you only get one shot and if you don't make it you don't make it, you just got to keep moving on. So it definitely prepares us well for the Olympics. Q. You talked at the beginning about you do think this is a great rivalry with and you Michael, but we have seen rivalries in boxing, tennis, golf, team sports. With what's going to happen this week and in London, how big do you think this could be? How big do you think and you Michael could be in this rivalry? RYAN LOCHTE: I honestly think we could change the sport. There is no doubt in my mind, in the Olympics, that is probably‑‑ it's going to be the biggest talk, one of the biggest talks is me versus Michael. Q. When he did what he did in 2008, did you have a moment then or since then where you thought, I can do that? He got his golds, his eight, I can do that. RYAN LOCHTE: I think I've had that feeling since I was about 11 or 12. It's just how my mind works. I always feel like I can win everything. That's how I go into any sport, always feeling like I can win. Definitely when he did that in 2008, it was amazing, it was mind blowing. But like I said, he's human, like all of us, he just trained a lot harder and knows how to win. I guess that's what anyone has to do if they want to do that. Q. Can you talk about the Trials being held in Omaha, the location, the facilities, the fans? RYAN LOCHTE: Well I remember in 2008 it was just amazing. We had fireworks on deck, it was just‑‑ the crowd was just going nuts for every race. It was amazing. The pool was fast. Definitely coming back here let's just say it was a long four years to get back here, but I'm glad I am. Q. You said you feel like you can win anything. How hard was it then in 2008 to swim as well as you did and not win everything? RYAN LOCHTE: That's just my mind‑set of going into any race knowing that I can win it. Doesn't matter who I'm racing against. I'm going out there to win, I'm not going out for second or third. I want to go out there to win and when it doesn't happen, you know what? When I touch the wall of every race, no matter if I win or lose, I'll look at the scoreboard and I'll be happy, or I'll be like, you know what? I should have won. Right after I get out of the pool, after that race, I'm back to being "Relaxed Ryan." I'm not thinking about that race, I'm thinking about the next race, and I keep moving forward. The mistakes I did in that race, my coach will tell me and we'll go through it, and hopefully I'll change it so it doesn't happen again. Q. Curious, you've talked about how your training has changed over the years and that you haven't changed but your internal, external motivation, what motivates you on a daily basis to work hard, train hard and how has that changed or has it changed from 2004 coming into the trials, what was your motivation in 2008, is that the same or has it changed? RYAN LOCHTE: Definitely every day I always come with a goal to practice, no matter what it is, whether it's the littlest things like extra dolphin kicks under water off each turn, I always come to practice with a purpose. Since 2004, I was just kinda knew to the swimming world. After‑‑ every year after that I got a little faster, a little faster and now‑‑ especially what happened last year at Worlds, my confidence is probably the biggest thing. I know I can win and I know I can do multiple events back‑to‑back, and I think that's what keeps me going and that's what's going to carry me on through the Trials and through the Olympics. Q. How do you assess where you are physically and mentally now compared to where you were when you set the world record in Shanghai last year in the 200 IM? RYAN LOCHTE: I think for my athlete, you kinda know you've got to trust your body, you've got to know it. Right now, I don't feel that little "pop" in my stroke that I usually feel when I'm tapered, so I know that it's coming. It's coming really fast. Just because of all the hard work, the extra work that I put in this year, it's taking me a little longer than usual. I know that by tomorrow and especially by Monday, I'll be back to where I was hopefully a lot faster than World's. Q. With all the talk of the rivalry, have you felt any internal/external pressure to take Michael on in events that may not be wise for you or that looking at your whole work load don't make sense even if you were to make the team in that event? RYAN LOCHTE: I honestly‑‑ I don't mind all the hoorah that people talk about, about me and Michael, because honestly it goes through one ear and out the other. I don't pay attention. I'm lost in my own world, and I just stay there. I just do what I love to do. I love to race.   Some people might say you're crazy for going back‑to‑back events but you know what? It's fun for me. If I win, I win, if I don't, I don't. It's not the end of the world. As long as I'm having fun doing what I love to do I'm going to keep doing this. Q. Ryan, did you give any thought or were you concerned with providing Michael with motivation by being so confident in what you think you can do?   RYAN LOCHTE: There is no doubt in my mind that, especially after last year, Michael definitely was like, you know what? I gotta get ready. So he definitely put in the work this year, I know that for sure. You can see it from the in‑season meets. He's been on the numbers, so he's definitely going to be ready, and it's Michael Phelps, he will always be there no matter what. He just knows how to race. I think that goes a long ways, because at this point it's just about racing. It doesn't matter about times or what they said‑‑ like, "You're the best in the world," it just matters about race and go getting your hand on the wall first. Q. What is the dynamic like between you and Michael away from the pool? Has it changed at all since your success that you have had against him? RYAN LOCHTE: Honestly it hasn't changed. During the season‑‑ like when I'm home and he's home I won't text him and be like, "Hey buddy, what's up? How is practice?" Because we know. When we get together, we talk, we hang out, he's still my partner for Spades, and we still take it to Ricky Berens and Cullen Jones all the time, and we have to keep that tradition. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Ryan, good luck. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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