Lochte talks rehab, roller-coaster life
PALO ALTO, CALIF. – Ryan Lochte, returning to competitive swimming on Wednesday for the first time since serving a 14-month ban for receiving an intravenous injection, addressed his “roller-coaster” life outside the pool.
During the last three years, Lochte has served a 10-month ban for an alcohol-fueled incident in the 2016 Olympics, served another 14-month ban for use of a prohibited IV and sought treatment for a problem with alcohol.
Lochte said he checked into a rehab center in Florida last year and the treatment lasted about six weeks.
“I think it was getting to a point in my life where I needed a change,” said Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medalist who turns 35 Sunday and is competing at the Phillips 66 National Championships. “So, yes, I checked myself into rehab. I did the classes. I did everything.”
Lochte said he drank a glass of wine June 17 to celebrate the birth of his daughter, Liv Rae.
“But I don’t care for (alcohol),” said Lochte, who also has a 2-year-old son, Caiden. “I have bigger and better things going on. And I’m glad that I went to rehab and got checked out just because it helped me out.
“It helped put things in perspective in my life and what is really more important than going out to a bar and getting hammered or doing anything like that. I go home and get to play with my kids and kiss and hold my wife. And that to me is everything.”
Asked if it was accurate to say he had been treated for alcohol addiction – the term Lochte’s attorney, Jeffrey Ostrow, used – or alcoholism, Lochte replied, “You know, you can call it whatever you want to call it. I went there because I needed help. I need to change some things in my life and that’s what I went there for and I came out a better man.”
It was the 14-month ban, not alcohol, that kept Lochte from competitive swimming until Wednesday.
The ban that has sidelined him since May 2018 stemmed from a photo Lochte posted of himself on his social media accounts. The photo showed him with an IV in his left arm and attracted the attention of the United States Anti-Doping Agency. Lochte was hit with the ban because investigators found the IV drip exceeded the allowable limit of 100 milliliters. USADA said the IV did not contain a banned substance, and Lochte said Wednesday it was Vitamin B12.
He said he got the IV drip because his wife, Kayla Rae, and son were so sick they’d gone to the hospital and Lochte was preparing for a meet. “So I didn’t want to get sick, especially because I had competition that I was going to swim. So I just got Vitamin 12 infusion and that’s a no-no, so I paid the penalty.”
But on Wednesday, Lochte was beaming after a time trial in which he swam the 200 individual medley in 1:57.88 – 3.88 seconds off his world-record time of 1:54.00 and easily qualifying for the U.S. Olympic trials.
Lochte hopes to compete in the 2020 Games in Tokyo, which would be his fifth Olympics.
“I’m having fun swimming again,” he said. “And I haven’t had fun since the 2012 Olympics. So it’s been a long time where I can honestly say I’m stepping out on that pool deck with a big smile on my face, and I owe it all to my kids and my wife. They’ve been my backbone throughout this whole journey these past three years ago. I owe it all to them.”