One of USA swimming’s greats might not make an appearance in Rio de Janeiro in August.
Eleven-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte pulled his groin during Sunday’s 400-meter individual medley preliminary trial and failed to qualify for the event. Lochte won gold in the 400 IM in 2012, but now his future at the 2016 Rio Olympics is in jeopardy.
Lochte still has trials for the 200-meter freestyle, 100 free, 200 backstroke, 200 IM and 100 butterfly, but at this point, he’s not sure if he’ll compete in all of them.
“I don’t know,” Lochte said, per Yahoo! Sports. “I’m going to keep working on it day-in and day-out, and hopefully it gets better throughout the days. … I’ll hopefully get a couple of cortisone shots just to help it, but hopefully it’ll be better by tomorrow.”
The 400 IM is the most taxing event, which makes it harder for 31-year-old Lochte. Even Michael Phelps, the world’s most decorated Olympic swimmer, cut short his training for the event in 2012 and ended up coming in fourth.
“I think it’s tough because of what you have to do in training,” U.S. men’s team coach Bob Bowman said, via Yahoo! “I’m sure somebody in their 30s could do it if they could get the motivation to do the training, but that’s tough. You’ve got to think somebody like Ryan or Michael, they’ve been doing this for 20 years and probably at a super-high level for 15 years, and there’s only so long you can sustain that kind of work.”
Thumbnail photo via Rob Schumacher/USA TODAY Sports Images
