Former Gator Ryan Lochte recorded three of his 15 World Championships titles in Barcelona, Spain, over the past week, bringing his career medal count to 23 at Worlds. Two of his gold medals came in a two-hour span where he swam in three different events on Friday.
“I wasn’t really thinking about the triple at all,” Lochte said in a post-swim interview. “I was just focusing on my first race, after that my second and my third.”
He led start-to-finish in the 200-meter backstroke final, clocking in at 1:53.79. He posted the top qualifying time in the 100-meter butterfly semi-final (51.48) 55 minutes later. He finished off the day with a first-place finish in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay (7:01.72).
Lochte set the fastest time in all three events during the same day of competition and remains the only swimmer to compete at a World Championships and win two gold medals in the same day on three separate occasions. He previously accomplished the feat on March 30, 2007 and again on July 29, 2011.
He needed some help en route to his record-setting day. As a part of the 4x200-meter free relay team, along with Charles Houchin, Ricky Berens and former Gator All-American Conor Dwyer, Lochte brought his team from third to first on the second leg of the relay, which his two teammates would not surrender.
It was Dwyer’s second medal of the meet. He claimed a sliver in the 200-meter free earlier in the week.
Junior Elizabeth Beisel also got in on the medal action with a bronze performance on Sunday in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:31.69.
In his World Championships debut, sophomore Dan Wallace finished in seventh during the finals of the 400-meter IM with a time of 4:13.72.
Two other Gators posted their best international finishes on Saturday. Freshman Sinead Russell took seventh in the 200-meter back final (2:10.46), and junior Hilda Luthersdottir’s 31.37 in the 50-meter breast preliminaries earned her 13th-place finish.
But Lochte didn’t see only success. The United States 4x100-meter medley relay team was disqualified during the breaststroke leg.
Former and current Gator swimmers combined to earn four gold medals, three silvers and one bronze at the 15th World Championships.
Also taking place this past week was the U.S. Open Championships in Irvine, Calif.
Rousseau owned the long-course pool, sweeping his events and claiming four gold medals. He was named the Male High Point of the meet for his efforts.
His first victory came on July 30, the opening day of the meet, in the 200-meter fly. His time of 1:55.64 was more than half of a second ahead of second place. Two days later he claimed the 400-meter IM gold medal (4:11.11) by blowing out the competition. The closest swimmer was 4.7 seconds behind Rousseau’s pace.
Rousseau dominated the field on Friday in the 200-meter free (1:48.51) and again on Saturday for the 200-meter IM (1:59.58) to complete the sweep.
Junior Alicia Mathieu stopped the clock at 16:16.75 in the 1500-meter free in a bronze-medal performance on Saturday.
Outside of Rousseau’s four gold medals, Mathieu was the only other UF swimmer to earn a medal at the US Open.
Florida sophomore Elizabeth Beisel competes in the women's 200-yard breaststroke during the Gators' meet against the Florida Atlantic Owls on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center Natatorium.
