International swimming superstar Ryan Lochte has landed in Charlotte, North Carolina with hopes to begin training there.
Lochte hinted this summer that he was going to try some different training locations, after a decade in Gainesville, Florida, and among those spots he had discussed was Charlotte: training grounds for one of his best friends Cullen Jones.
SwimMAC coaches referred us to Lochte’s publicist, who we were unable to reach for comment on Wednesday, but at least one member of Charlotte’s most famous swim club have told us that Lochte hopes to train with the post-grad group there (which is supported by public comments earlier in the summer).
He would join a training group that could even exceed the quality of the one that sent 5 to the Olympics in 2012. Others who have joined SwimMAC in the last few months include Lauren Perdue, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace, Dax Hill, Katie Meili, and Tim Phillips, at least for the fall semester.
All of the excitement, though, must be tempered, as information on how long he plans to be there, or whether he plans to train with SwimMAC, will have to wait until someone on either side of the situation breaks their silence. We know that Lochte’s plan is to spend long stretches training outside of Gainesville, and several Tweets from Queens University students today confirm that he was seen training in their new on-campus facility today.
I bet mac will try to take credit for Lochte in 2016 after he spends a month training there. Classic.