Ryan Lochte Speaks About “Bettering” Himself in New Podcast
This week, four-time U.S. Olympian Ryan Lochte appeared on the Thirty Minute Mentors podcast with host Adam Mendler. During the appearance, Lochte reflected on the infamous Rio gas station scandal and how that moment, which he calls one of the lowest of his life, helped him work to improve himself out of the pool.
“And just like that, no matter what I’ve accomplished in the pool or out, it went all to waste in a matter of minutes. But I mean, I did it to myself,” Lochte told Mendler, according to People.com. He added, “I just started bettering myself every day.”
After the Rio Olympics, Lochte married Kayla Rae Reid. and the couple has two children, son Caiden and daughter Liv. During the next several years, he spoke often of his family as his inspiration for wanting to return to elite-level swimming. He said that he needed to pursue the Tokyo Olympics, even though he would turn 37 just after those Games ended, because he needed to show his children the value of not giving up.
In his latest podcast appearance, Lochte spoke about the role his family and, in particular, his wife have played in helping him get to a better place in life.
“She’s helped me through everything, through the thick and thin, she went through it with me,” Lochte said of Reid, per People.com “She was like my guardian angel that motivated me, that little angel being like, ‘Hey, keep going, keep going, keep fighting, you’re better than this, you’re better than this.”
Lochte was never able to gain much traction in his post-Rio swim comeback. Just prior to U.S. Nationals in 2018, Lochte was suspended for 10 months for use of a restricted IV (which was discovered when Lochte posted a photo to social media). He returned to win the national title in the 200 IM in 2019, but when the Olympic Trials for the delayed Tokyo Olympics came around two years later, Lochte ended up seventh in his only final, the 200 IM.
Lochte caused a bit of a stir at Trials when he declined to reveal whether he had been vaccinated for COVID-19, but he was gracious in defeat as he congratulated Olympians Michael Andrew and Chase Kalisz and even shared an embraced with longtime rival Michael Phelps. Later that evening, Lochte became emotional in a press conference as he reflected on his career, and other top swimmers chimed in with praise for Lochte.