Back in early March, I was covering the Southern Premier Meet at the University of Tennessee’s Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center in Knoxville.
With the help of former Olympic gold medalist Davis Tarwater of Knoxville, I was able to interview several well-known swimmers taking part in this unique meet that had youth swimmers competing at the same time as some of the nation’s top swimmers.
I was quite excited knowing I was going to get a chance to interview decorated Olympian Ryan Lochte.
I had actually also covered for the Knoxville News Sentinel his talk to a UT swim camp for youngsters in the summer of 2014.
At that time, someone had put out the word that he was not available for interviews, but was only speaking to the campers.
However, the media could still cover his talk.
So I went over to the UT campus and actually arrived early in the large theatre-type room at the Anderson Training Center where the football team meets. He was sitting up front and was kindly posing for pictures with people, but I did not approach him due to the parameters that had been set up.
I had assumed after watching him at the previous Olympics that he was brash and maybe did not even like fellow American Michael Phelps, whom he considered a rival.
But when he gave his roughly 30-minute talk to the dozens of campers and some of their parents, and when he answered questions, he actually seemed very low key and likeable. He almost did not look overly comfortable as a public speaker.
I remember leaving that day thinking he was a better guy than maybe the image that had come out in the media. And he pointed out that he and Michael Phelps were actually good and close friends, even though they competed hard in the pool.
And this past spring, when Mr. Tarwater brought him over to the small poolside bleachers where I was sitting during a practice day, he seemed very low key, nice and easily approachable. He kindly answered all the questions during the roughly 5-minute, one-on-one interview.
I remember that he said experience was the main factor he had going for him as he prepared for the Olympics, even though he was then 31 and knew his youthful days as a swimmer were behind him.
Mr. Lochte also re-iterated that he and Mr. Phelps were indeed good friends, and that he loved the Jones Center, which was named for the Cleveland, Tenn., businessman. He remembered the Olympic team training there in 2012 before heading to London, but he did not reference his 2014 talk at the UT camp.
He then left and had a good meet, easily winning one of the individual medley races.
I remember talking with one or two people who helped put on that meet, and they were mentioning how nice he had been to everyone while in Knoxville that week. Someone remarked that he tried to greet every fan with kindness, because he remembered getting the cold shoulder from a standout swimmer as a child.
He even took part in a swim clinic one morning, reconnecting with the child of a swimmer who had been involved in the swim program of Mr. Lochte’s father in New York years before.
Well, let’s fast forward to the past couple of weeks. Mr. Lochte – although slightly past his prime – still managed to win a gold medal in a relay at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. And like many young people might do, he decided to celebrate some with three other American swimmers after the swimming competitions had ended.
Needless to say, his behavior was heavily criticized after everyone learned that he had vandalized a gas station in Rio following a night of heavy drinking and was not robbed at gunpoint as he originally claimed.
His behavior and integrity were questioned in this incident that perpetuated the “ugly American” stereotype, and now sponsors have dropped him, causing him to lose millions of dollars.
His future in being able to compete in swim competitions as a representative of the United States is also in question, even though he is at the age when most world-class swimmers retire or seriously contemplate retiring.
In short, his image has been tarnished.
Although I have stopped being surprised to hear news about someone whom I thought was a decent person making a bad decision, all I can do now is hope he can grow positively from the incident and be made more whole.
And in the process, maybe he can become more the person he was perceived to be by various observers during his visits to the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center in Knoxville.
To hear an interview with Ryan Lochte during his visit to UT last March, click
here.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net