Ryan Lochte, healthy again, begins buildup for worlds, then Olympics

MESA, Ariz. — What drives Ryan Lochte is elusive, something he knows he might never attain.

Perfection.

"I just want to have a swim meet one time where I'm like, 'That's a perfect swim meet,' " Lochte tells USA TODAY Sports. "I don't know if that will ever happen.

It's never happened. … But that's good that it hasn't happened."

Because that ideal meet — which certainly would entail a series of personal-best times, perhaps a world record or two — is essentially out of reach for Lochte, it keeps him critiquing himself. It keeps him nitpicking himself. It keeps him finding areas to improve.

It reminds him he can do better.

This week's meet, the Arena Pro Swim Series event, has not been one of Lochte's best in recent months; it has been far from perfect. But the 11-time Olympic medalist is OK with it, because he's coming off altitude training and is just trying to figure out where his training is at, which strokes need more attention and how hard he can push his body in general.

After all, he has 16 months until the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro — which is both a long way off and fast approaching.

In early January, Lochte's coach, David Marsh, gathered Lochte and the rest of his professional swimmers at the SwimMAC program and reminded them that the lead-up to Rio starts now, that the 2015 season (including August's world championships) is the measuring stick for next summer's Olympic trials, which determine the U.S. team.

"David was like, 'It's time to get your ass in gear. It's time to get focused,' " Lochte recalls. "Since then, everyone on the team has seriously gotten focused. We've been training harder."

That's particularly true for Lochte. This time last year, he was coming off a serious knee injury and wasn't quite able to go full throttle, even if he tried.

"You don't see him having to baby the knee a little bit," teammate and close friend Cullen Jones says. "For a while, that was a big issue. You'd see him touch his knee, tap it down, make sure it was going to be OK. Now, he's coming in (to the weight room), and he's hang cleaning. He's squatting. He's doing everything he needs to be strong.

"He's healthy."

As Lochte puts it, "This is completely different than last year both in terms of physical shape and mentally. I'm in a good place right now."

The injury kept him away from the pool for some time, making him antsy and making training difficult. But now Lochte enjoys being in the water every day, focuses more at each training session and appreciates what his body can do when it's not limited.

Marsh thinks Lochte's training over the past two months has been exactly what it needs to be, and Marsh expressed excitement about what he saw when the swimmer spent three weeks training at altitude.

Lochte is focusing on this summer's world championships in Kazan, Russia. The meet is viewed as a tuneup for Rio, one that will pit most of the world's best talent against each other. (Michael Phelps will not be at the meet as part of his punishment from USA Swimming after his drunken-driving arrest in September.)

Even though Lochte's times in Mesa in various events aren't where he'd like them to be in Kazan (where he's entered in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle, along with the 200 individual medley), he's not too worried about it.

"I train really hard all year. I'm not that good," Lochte says. "When I taper and get ready for the big championship meets, I'll be there."

That mentality is echoed by his coach. Marsh says he has been reminding his star pupil all week that his training is on point and is preparing him well for the upcoming important meets. He has put in the work, and the results will come.

"This is the background you need to be able to build something special," Marsh says. "Everybody knows you have to train really well the year before the Olympics to have a really good Olympic year. …

"Ryan has the incredible strokes, the incredible relationship with the water, the racing prowess. … This year, going into Kazan, he's turned up the volume substantially. I think we'll see some good things come out of it."

Maybe, just maybe, even something approaching perfection.

GALLERY: RYAN LOCHTE