OLYMPIC GAMES
How did Ryan Lochte fail to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris?
The 12-time Olympic medallist is one of the most decorated swimmers of all time but he will not be competing at this summer’s Games.
Only the great Michael Phelps has picked up more Olympic swimming medals than Ryan Lochte, the four-time Olympian and former World Swimmer of the Year.
Over the course of his stellar career Lochte has picked up 90 medals at major international competitions, including six gold medals at the Olympics and 39 world championship titles. However the 39-year-old will not be adding to that incredible haul at this summer’s Games in Paris.
Lochte sought to make one final Olympics appearance at the previous Olympics in Tokyo, held in 2021. Then aged 36, Lochte finished 7th in the 200m individual medley at the Olympic Trials. Top two finishers Michael Andrew and Chase Kalisz went in his place.
At the time Lochte said: “I still want to race, but as far as another Olympic Trials, I don’t know about that. I’ll be 40. That’s pushing it, but we’ll see. I mean, anything can happen. I can take years off and come back and be stronger than ever, who knows.”
Why was Ryan Lochte suspended from competition?
The Rochester-born swimmer is one of the most celebrated name in the history of US swimming but his career has not been without incident.
In 2016 Lochte was charged with falsifying a police record in relation to an alleged robbery during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He claimed that he and teammates Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger had been robbed at gunpoint by “armed robbers posing as police”.
It later transpired that the alleged robbers were actual security guards at a gas station that the swimmers had vandalised during a night out. Lochte was forced to apologise for the inaccuracies in his police statement and he was hit with a ten-month suspension by the US Olympic Committee and USA Swimming.
Further issues came in 2018 when Lochte received a 14-month suspension by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after taking a “prohibited intravenous infusion”. The substance was not strictly outlawed but the volume of the infusion exceeded the USADA regulations for athletes. He sought to make a famous return to the Olympic pool for the Tokyo Games but he did not make another appearance after his gold medal-winning performance in the 4x200m freestyle relay in 2016.