Ryan Lochte Says He May Have Come Back Too Soon

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, March 3. IN an article on the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Olympic star Ryan Lochte has now said he might have come back from his knee injury a bit too soon when he swam at the Arena Grand Prix in Orlando.

“I got back in the water faster that what was expected,” Lochte told the News-Journal. “The doctors still say that I should be more careful, and I said, ‘Ahh, I don’t want to listen to them, I want to get back in the water.’ It started feeling fine. Then when I raced in Orlando, I don’t know, something happened, something was wrong in my knee and it hurt, so I knew I pushed it too hard. Maybe (the storm) was a blessing in disguise.”

Lochte still has plans to compete in Mesa next month at the Grand Prix stop there, and is hoping to be ready for nationals to qualify for the Pan Pacific Championships later this summer.

The injury isn’t out of the norm for Lochte, who has a habit of hurting himself in surprising ways. This time, it was a fan interaction where he caught a fan in mid-air when she threw herself at the star. He wound up tearing his medial collateral ligament and sprained his anterior cruciate ligament.

“Certain things I still can’t do, but I’m working at it,” Lochte told the News-Journal. “I don’t like losing and I don’t like not being at swim meets, so hopefully I’ll get back into it. Right now, it’s getting stronger. I’m still doing rehab. I’m doing rehab everyday. And I still can’t do the breaststroke. I’m hoping it gets a lot stronger.”

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