page_title: Ryan Lochte
section_title: 2009 World Championships
hierarchical_section_title: Ryan Lochte / International career / 2009 World Championships
caption_attribution_description: English: Lochte at the 2009 National Championships.
context_page_description: Ryan Steven Lochte is an American competitive swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist. Along with Natalie Coughlin, Dara Torres, and Jenny Thompson, he is the second-most decorated swimmer in Olympic history measured by total number of medals, behind only Michael Phelps. Lochte's seven individual Olympic medals rank second in history in men's swimming, tied for second among all Olympic swimmers. He currently holds the world records in the 200-meter individual medley. As part of the American teams, he also holds the world record in the 4×200-meter freestyle and 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
  Lochte's success has earned him SwimSwam's Swammy Award for U.S. Male Swimmer of the Year in 2013, the World Swimmer of the Year Award and the American Swimmer of the Year Award twice. He has also been named the FINA Swimmer of the Year three times. He has won a total of 90 medals in major international competition spanning the Olympics, the World Championships, Pan American Games, and Pan Pacific Championships, including six Olympic gold medals and 39 world championship titles.
  Lochte specializes in the backstroke and individual medley, but is also a freestyle and butterfly swimmer.
context_section_description: At the 2009 National Championships, the selection meet for the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, Lochte won individual titles in the 200 and 400-meter individual medley.  Lochte also qualified to swim in the 4×100 and 4×200-meter freestyle relay.  In the 200-meter backstroke final, Lochte placed second behind Aaron Peirsol, and lost his world record he set in Beijing when Peirsol recorded a time of 1:53.08.
  In his first event at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, Lochte swam the second leg of the men's 4×100-meter freestyle relay in a time of 47.03.  He earned a gold medal in the event along with Phelps, Matt Grevers, and Nathan Adrian.  The final time of 3:09.21 was a championship record and just ahead of Russia (3:09.52) and France (3:09.89).  With Phelps not competing in the 200 or 400-meter individual medley at these championships, Lochte won the gold in both events.  In the 200-meter individual medley, Lochte broke Phelps' world record of 1:54.23 with a time of 1:54.10.  In the 200-meter backstroke, Lochte won the bronze medal, finishing behind Peirsol and Ryosuke Irie of Japan. In the 4×200-meter freestyle relay final, Lochte swam the anchor leg in 1:44.46.  Combined with Phelps, Berens, and David Walters, Lochte won the gold medal and his team broke the previous world record by one-hundredth of a second with a time of 6:58.55.
caption: Lochte at the 2009 National Championships
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