LOS ANGELES, Aug 5, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Six-time Olympic gold medallist Ryan
Lochte, back from a 14-month suspension, won the 200m individual medley on
Sunday at the US swimming championships in Palo Alto, California.
Lochte, 35, clocked 1min 57.76 to win a 27th national title and stamp
himself a contender to make a fifth Olympic team next year.
“This was a lot easier 10 years ago,” said Lochte, who finished 1.07sec in
front of silver medallist Shalne Casas. “I’ve got a lot of ways to go for
2020.”
Lochte was suspended from swimming for 10 months after a scandal at the
2016 Olympics, when he was found to have fabricated a story about a robbery
during a drunken late-night episode in Rio de Janeiro.
He had returned from that ban when he was handed a 14-month suspension by
the US Anti-Doping Agency over a prohibited intravenous infusion of legal
vitamins — which he posted about on social media.
In his time away from competition, Lochte appeared on the US television
reality show Celebrity Big Brother, and also sought treatment for alcohol
addiction.
Lochte, who would turn 36 during next year’s Tokyo Olympics, won
individual Olympic gold in the 200m backstroke in 2008 at Beijing and in the
400m individual medley in 2012 in London and won 4x200m freestyle relay gold
in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. He has won a total of 12 medals in four Olympic
appearances.