“In Deep with Ryan Lochte” is an hourlong journey of how a rambunctious Florida kid became the second-best swimmer of his generation (perhaps history). Of how he became an Olympic embarrassment. Of how he’s trying to regain respect by becoming the oldest male swimmer in U.S. Olympic history, this time as a father.
“After the Olympics, I read a headline, the worst person in the world,” Lochte says at the start of the film, now available for Peacock Premium subscribers. “Everyone’s been, well, where the hell’s Ryan Lochte?”
Lochte is back living and training in Gainesville, Fla., where coach Gregg Troy molded him into the world’s best swimmer what seems like a lifetime ago. Lochte attended the University of Florida in the mid-2000s and, by the end of the decade, supplanted Michael Phelps as the king of the sport before moving to different coaches.
“A lot of people ask me if Michael Phelps wasn’t swimming in the same era, you would be the Michael Phelps,” Lochte said. “That could be true.”
Phelps retired with an Olympic record 28 medals. Lochte owns 12, tied for the second-most for an American and for a swimmer and the most for any active athlete.
Before he matriculated at UF, Lochte was coached by his father, Steve, a junior college All-American who started the Daytona Beach Swimming club after moving the family from New York when Lochte was 12.
When Lochte earned his first individual gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, TV cameras caught his proud father in tears in the Water Cube crowd. Steve felt fulfilled, years after first telling his son that, to be great, a swimmer needed to break a world record and win an Olympic title.
From there, he started breaking Phelps’ records and beating Phelps in races, through the 2012 Olympics and Phelps’ first retirement.
Everything changed in 2016. Phelps was in the shape of his life for his last Olympics, winning another six medals. Lochte, slowed by a groin injury at Olympic Trials, made the team in one individual event and one relay and placed fifth in the 200m IM in Rio.
After he was done competing in Brazil, Lochte lied about an early morning gas-station incident after a late night of drinking. The spiral led to sponsors dropping him and a 10-month suspension. Then there was the alcohol addiction rehab stint. And the 14-month ban for an IV of an illegal amount of a legal substance, brought on by Lochte posting a photo of the infusion on his social media.
Lochte was planning to come back in full this year. Now, with the coronavirus pandemic halting sports, he must do it in 2021, looking to become, at 36, the oldest U.S. Olympic male swimmer in history.
“Yes, I made a mistake in Rio, and I need to earn the respect fro my fellow swimmers, from Team USA, from everyone in the world,” said Lochte, now married with two kids. “I gotta earn the respect. If I don’t make the Olympic team, they won’t see the change that I’ve made.”
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“I f****d up. I’m sorry.”
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) July 15, 2020
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His first chance to compete outside the shadow of the greatest Olympian who ever lived.
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 15, 2020
And yet, @RyanLochte admits he wouldn’t have been the same competitor without Michael Phelps.
In Deep with Ryan Lochte, streaming now for FREE on @PeacockTV: https://t.co/AZP7D9Aefk pic.twitter.com/fxzyRmyTQZ
Growing up, @RyanLochte was good. To be Great, he needed Olympic gold.
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 15, 2020
In Deep with Ryan Lochte, streaming now for FREE on @PeacockTV: https://t.co/AZP7D9Aefk pic.twitter.com/JbqaLfgutP