RIO DE JANEIRO — Ryan Lochte will be back swimming.
Where, when and with whom, well, most of that is unknown as the veteran leaves these Rio Olympics.
The 32-year-old is taking a break from swimming for the first time in his career after winning his 12th Olympic medal here.
“I’ve taken a month off, but every day beating up your body, training countless hours for so many years takes a toll,” Lochte said on Friday. “Being my age, it definitely took a toll. And I mentally need to recover. I need to get away from the sport and relax and take a vacation. I’ve never taken a vacation.”
Lochte wrapped up his competition here with a fifth-place finish in the 200 individual medley on Thursday. He helped the United States to gold in the 4x200 freestyle relay earlier this week.
Next up for Lochte is a move to the West Coast, which he expects to happen by September or October.
He trained at the University of Florida under Gregg Troy for more than a decade before moving to Charlotte in 2013 to train at SwimMAC under David Marsh.
Lochte doesn’t know if he would return to either one of those programs or find one in California to train at.
“I’m not done in the sport,” said Lochte. “There’s so much more I want to accomplish in the sport of swimming, so I’m not done yet. I don’t know when I’m going to come back. I’m going to come back when I’m ready.”
Lochte does know one thing about his return – he’d like to train with Conor Dwyer. Both are former Gators who trained together at Florida.
Dwyer currently trains at the USC-based Trojan Swim Club.
Lochte said he wants to train with Dwyer because he also does IM and that they can push each other in practice while having fun.
“I think that’s what I need is to bring that smile that I used to have back into the sport,” he said.
