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The United States won silver in the men’s 800 free relay at the FINA world championships behind Great Britain, a position the team is not used to seeing in the event. Members of the squad spoke with reporters after the race about the emotions of getting second and how it will carry forward to next year’s Olympics.
“We knew before this race started that it was going to be a battle,” Ryan Lochte said. “I know that we’re missing some guys, … but we put our best forward for USA. We came up short, but we’re definitely going to remember this and hopefully we’re going to train our butts off for next year and not let that happen again for Rio.”
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Michael Weiss was given the duty of swimming last for the United States, and he said “emotions were high” when he stepped up for his leg with 200 free winner James Guy.
“At the first world championships, to be able to be the anchor leg for USA was pretty exciting,” he said.
Reed Malone got the nod to be on the relay as well, despite what he called a disappointing prelim swim.
“When Team USA calls, you have to answer and I did my best tonight,” he said, adding a bit of disappointment about being the slowest of the four splits among the Americans. “I probably should have been a bit faster, and it could have made the difference.
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