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BARCELONA, Spain, August 2. THE legend of Ryan Lochte continued to grow tonight at the FINA World Championships as he went three-for-three during his swims this evening, including a triumph in the men’s 800-meter freestyle relay.
Just minutes after winning the 200 back, and topping the 100 fly semifinals, Lochte was back in the water looking to help Team USA to its fifth straight victory in the men’s 800-meter freestyle relay. With the Stars and Stripes standing third after the first leg, Lochte turned in a powerful 1:44.98 split in the second leg to put the U.S. ahead for good.
When all was said and done, the Red, White and Blue quartet of Conor Dwyer (1:45.76), Lochte (1:44.98), Charlie Houchin (1:45.59) and Ricky Berens (1:45.39) compiled a 7:01.72 to win the event for the fifth time in a row. The U.S. hasn’t lost this event since here in Barcelona 10 years ago when the Australian team of Grant Hackett, Craig Stevens, Nicholas Sprenger and Ian Thorpe snagged the title.
The win gave Lochte his 15th world title, second only to Michael Phelps’ amazing 26 gold medals in long course world championship competition. Tonight proved to be even more jaw-dropping considering Lochte has only had about 11 weeks of actual training since the Olympics. After London, he focused on building his brand, including a reality television program on E! entitled What Would Ryan Lochte Do? Well, he answered that question tonight with “WIN”
Ryan Lochte at Worlds
2005 Montreal:
G 800 free relay
B 200 back
B 200 medley
2007 Melbourne:
G 200 back
G 800 free relay
S 100 back
S 200 IM
S 400 IM
2009 Rome:
G 200 IM
G 400 IM
G 400 free relay
G 800 free relay
B 200 back
2011 Shanghai:
G 200 free
G 200 back
G 200 IM
G 400 IM
G 800 free relay
B 400 free relay
2013 Barcelona:
G 200 back
G 200 IM
G 800 free relay
S 400 free relay
Russia initially opened up a lead with a 1:45.14 from Danila Izotov, but didn’t have the horses enough to compete with the deep U.S. squad. In the end, Izotov (1:45.14), Nikita Lobintsev (1:46.23), Artem Lobuzov (1:46.16) and Alexander Sukhorukov (1:46.39) raced to silver in 7:03.92. That’s nearly the same relay that produced a similar silver in 2009 behind the Americans.
China’s Sun Yang continued his heroics for his nation, as he almost single-handedly put the Chinese on the podium with an epic 1:43.16 anchor leg that moved them from fifth to third as Wang Shun (1:47.41), Hao Yun (1:47.25), Li Yunqi (1:46.92) and Sun (1:43.16) combined for a 7:04.74 for third. That’s Sun’s third medal this week as he’s already won the 400 and 800 freestyle and is looking for a historic 400/800/1500 free sweep to join Hackett as the only two men to accomplish the feat.
France (7:04.91), Japan (7:04.95), Germany (7:10.07), Belgium (7:11.15) and Great Britain (7:12.00) comprised the rest of the championship finale.
