Lochte Finishes Olympics Five Medals, Ryan Lochte said all along that 2012 was his year. He was ready to win more gold medals than Michael Phelps, which would include beating him in their two head-to-head matchups at the Olympics. Lochte’s meet ended Thursday night with five medals. The breakdown: Two gold, two silver and one bronze. Phelps, who still has two races left, also has five medals and his total breaks down the same. They split their two races together, with Phelps winning the 200m IM and Lochte claiming the 400m IM. Ryan Lochte took every question with good humor, smiling easily, spinning all of his comments positive. He had clowned around on the medal stand with Michael Phelps, even after missing gold medals in his night’s two individual races. He looked forward to having a birthday Friday — Lochte turns 28 — with no events to swim, for a change. “I’m done,” Lochte said with a grin to reporters. “I’m happy.”
As Phelps reveled in his second gold of the meet and U.S. breaststroker Rebecca Soni enjoyed a world record and gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke, Lochte finished his Olympic Games on Thursday determined to be upbeat, focusing on the number of medals he won, not their color.
Just more than an hour before, he had finished second to Phelps in his last event of these Games, the 200-meter individual medley, touching the wall in 1 minute 54.90 seconds to Phelps’s 1:54.27.
Thirty minutes before that, he got passed in the homestretch of the 200 backstroke, an event in which he had been reigning Olympic and world champion, by U.S. teammate Tyler Clary, who claimed a surprising gold in 1:53.41, and Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, who got silver in 1:53.78. Lochte got the bronze in 1:53.94.
“You always have big dreams in your head,” Clary said. “You hope you might pull off something like that. It has not even processed in my mind yet.”
Lochte, too, seemed unable to process what had occurred. He left the Aquatic Center with an impressive haul: two gold medals, two silvers and one bronze.
Yet that fell far from the six golds he sought. “A little bit above average,” he called it.
The Games’ biggest cover boy failed to live up to the hype, failed to live up even to his own bold predictions last week. He left London as he left Beijing in 2008: playing second fiddle to Phelps, who has won two golds and two silvers and has shots at two more medals.
“Whenever I step out on the blocks, obviously I always want to win,” Lochte said. “Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don’t. I can’t be too disappointed. I am coming home to my country with five Olympic medals.”
As Phelps reveled in his second gold of the meet and U.S. breaststroker Rebecca Soni enjoyed a world record and gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke, Lochte finished his Olympic Games on Thursday determined to be upbeat, focusing on the number of medals he won, not their color.
Just more than an hour before, he had finished second to Phelps in his last event of these Games, the 200-meter individual medley, touching the wall in 1 minute 54.90 seconds to Phelps’s 1:54.27.
Thirty minutes before that, he got passed in the homestretch of the 200 backstroke, an event in which he had been reigning Olympic and world champion, by U.S. teammate Tyler Clary, who claimed a surprising gold in 1:53.41, and Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, who got silver in 1:53.78. Lochte got the bronze in 1:53.94.
“You always have big dreams in your head,” Clary said. “You hope you might pull off something like that. It has not even processed in my mind yet.”
Lochte, too, seemed unable to process what had occurred. He left the Aquatic Center with an impressive haul: two gold medals, two silvers and one bronze.
Yet that fell far from the six golds he sought. “A little bit above average,” he called it.
The Games’ biggest cover boy failed to live up to the hype, failed to live up even to his own bold predictions last week. He left London as he left Beijing in 2008: playing second fiddle to Phelps, who has won two golds and two silvers and has shots at two more medals.
“Whenever I step out on the blocks, obviously I always want to win,” Lochte said. “Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don’t. I can’t be too disappointed. I am coming home to my country with five Olympic medals.”
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