GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Twelve-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte is a graduate of the University of Florida, and now this Gator still chooses to make his home in Gainesville.
He says he still gets a tear in his eye watching the Olympics.
"All the time. All the time," he says.
Lochte says he watched the U.S. swim trials in Indianapolis this summer and he predicts Paris will be a "dog fight." But, he believes, the American swimmers will come out on top.
Lochte is retired now and jokes, 'I'm old!" Hardly old, at age 39, but in comparison with the young swimming Olympic stars, perhaps.
When you walk into his home you might expect to see photos of him winning the close races framed with Olympic medals. After all, he has a dozen to choose from for display.
But you won't see a single Olympic medal or photo when you go in his house. Yes, he knows it's a big deal to have 12 Olympic medals, but he says, "Yeah, it's cool. But I'd rather hold my kids than put on the medals."
He does keep one in a wooden box, and his son, one of his three children, likes to try it on.
What is life like after Olympic victory?
Lochte says he has chlorine in his veins. Does he swim in his dreams still?
"My wife says so," Lochte said.
The tough training is still lodged in his mind:
"You have to beat up your body all the time just to get a fraction of a second faster," And then after the medals, he says, "You hang up the goggles and then what now? You're lost. You're completely lost."
Lochte doesn't have any trouble talking about the depression he slid into after his Olympic years.
"I'm an open book," he says. "I would wake up and look at myself in the mirror and it'd be like ... who is this disgusting person?"
But he turned to his family and also to Olympic great Michael Phelps. The two competed for years.
Phelps, the "GOAT," winning 28 medals and becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time, has been open about his depression. Lochte says they would send videos and texts and calls back and forth when Lochte was dealing with a dark time.
"And he was the one who helped me because he went through it," Lochte says.
In Lochte's kitchen area, a cross hangs on the wall. Lochte says his faith is important, and he and his wife spend time in prayer.
Part of his healing is helping others learn about mental health, and, at the same time, swimming. He travels around the country with Life Time Fitness to teach kids to swim. "I get into the pool with them and help them hands on," he says.
Lochte says he'll be in Paris for the Olympics.
And he knows his Olympic journey is peppered with moments of glory, such as beating Phelps at Worlds in 2011 in Shanghai. But also controversy.
In Rio, he set off an international scandal when he said on NBC News he'd been robbed at gunpoint at a gas station. The criticism poured in on Lochte for taking away the attention from athletes who'd trained for years to compete at the Olympics. Lochte was charged with falsely reporting a crime. The case was dismissed a year later.
Questions still linger, but Lochte admits when he speaks about it now that, "Yeah, I was drunk."
However, he goes on to say now — eight years later — that "In a sense I'm happy it happened, because it was someone upstairs teaching me a lesson. It made me and my wife stronger because we went through hell from that."
Now Lochte says, "I'm a better person. Still to this day I'm working through things. I'm not perfect."
His passion now is his family and his swim clinics. He's busy going around the country. His calendar for the near future looks like this:
- Life Time McKinney at Craig Ranch (Texas): Aug. 3-4
- Life Time Summerlin (Nevada): Aug. 10-11
- Life Time Plymouth (Minnesota): Aug. 17-18
- Life Time Columbia (Maryland): Sept. 7-8
- Life Time John's Creek (Georgia): Sept. 14-15
- Life Time Warrenville (Illinois): Sept. 28-29
- Life Time MetroWest (Boston): Oct. 11-12
- Life Time Troy (Michigan): Oct. 26-27
To find out more about his nationwide swim program you can click here.