Former Gator All-American swimmers Ryan Lochte and Melani Costa-Schmid both earned silver medals on Sunday during the first day of competition at the 15th FINA World Championships in Barcelona.
Lochte, an 11-time Olympic medalist for the United States, added to his resume by capturing his 20th long-course World Championships medal, second to only Michael Phelps’ 33.
His 4x100-meter freestyle relay team clocked in at 3:11.42, just 0.24 seconds behind the first-place French team.
Lochte will also compete in the 200-meter free final today at noon. As the No. 2 seed with a time of 1:46.06, Lochte will compete with former Gator and 2012 Olympian Conor Dwyer (USA), who is the No. 6 seed (1:47.05)
They will share the pool again for the 400-meter individual medley during the final day of competition on Aug 4. Lochte enters the event with the top seed and a qualifying time of 1:54.90.
Costa-Schmid, a two-time Spanish Olympian, posted a 4:02.47 in the 400-meter free, finishing in second. Her performance bested her semifinal showing by 1.73 seconds and set a new Spanish national record.
They are joined by a group of All-Americans, including former Gator Jemma Lowe (Great Britain), junior Elizabeth Beisel (USA), junior Hilda Luthersdottir (Iceland), freshman Sinead Russell (Canada) and sophomore Dan Wallace (Great Britain).
All but Wallace are former Olympians.
Although Beisel’s qualifying time for the 200-meter individual medley (2:11.16) was the fourth fastest, she finished 12th in the semifinals with a time of 2:11.69.
She will compete again in the 400-meter individual medley on the last day of the meet.
A mere 0.02 seconds separated Lowe from the finals in the 100-meter butterfly as her 58.46 was good enough for 9th.
Lowe wasn’t the only one to miss the final cut as Russell finished her semifinal 100-meter backstroke in 9th. However, she still has the 50-meter back on Wednesday and 200-meter back on Friday.
Luthersdottir finished 30th in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:09.75), nearly breaking her Icelandic national record by 0.27 seconds. She will swim next in the 200-meter breast on Thursday.
Ryan Lochte competes in a 400-meter individual medley during the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on July 28, 2012. Lochte won silver in the 4x100 freestyle at the FINA World Championships on Sunday.
