Lochte Fails to Advance in 200 Free Prelims at US Trials

Ryan Lochte competes in the men's 200-meter individual medley time trial at the U.S. national swimming championships in Stanford, Calif., on July 31, 2019. David J. Phillip/AP Photo

OMAHA, Neb.—Olympic champion Ryan Lochte failed to advance from the preliminaries of the 200-meter freestyle on Monday, his first event of the U.S. Olympic swimming trials.

The 36-year-old Lochte, attempting to make his fifth Olympic team, posted a time of 1 minute, 49.23 seconds—only good enough for 25th place overall.

The top 16 advanced to the evening semifinals, led by Kieran Smith at 1:46.54. Caeleb Dressel was second in 1:46.63.

Smith won the 400 free on Sunday to earn his first trip to the Olympics.

Ryan Lochte competes in the men's 200-meter final at the TYR Pro Swim Series swim meet in Mission Viejo, Calif., on April 9, 2021. Ashley Landis/AP Photo

Lochte was also entered Monday in the 100 backstroke, but he scratched that event. Defending Olympic champion Ryan Murphy easily advanced from the preliminaries, as did 36-year-old Matt Grevers, the 2012 gold medalist.

Even though Lochte initially entered six events at the trials, it appears the 200 individual medley is the only race in which he has any realistic shot of earning a trip to Tokyo. He scratched the 400 IM on Sunday.

Lochte has won 12 Olympic medals, including six golds. Now married with two children, he hopes to make it to one more Olympics to erase the stigma of an incident at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, where he lied about being robbed at gunpoint.