Former U.S. swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte says he was “kind of disappointed” in the U.S. men’s swimming team performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, despite Team USA leading the overall men’s and women’s medal counts when all was said and done.
In an exclusive new interview with PEOPLE, the 40-year-old swimmer — who last qualified for the Olympics in 2016 after not making the team for Tokyo — says he was so frustrated by Team USA’s performance this summer that a part of him wants to get back in the pool and compete again himself.
We recently caught up with Lochte to discuss his recent 10-month recovery process following a severe car accident last November that broke his “femur in half.” During the interview, Lochte also opened up about his reaction to Team USA’s performance at the Paris Olympics last month.
Although Team USA led the total medal count — including eight gold medals — the men’s team faced criticism for only securing one individual gold with Bobby Finke’s win in the 1,500-meter freestyle race.
“I’m kind of disappointed in USA Swimming,” Lochte tells PEOPLE. “We did not do as well as I thought. And I talked to Michael Phelps about this and we had the same exact answers. We thought we should have done better just because that’s what USA Swimming is, we’re dominant. And yes, the rest of the world is catching up, is starting to train over here with us, but then they swim against USA when they go back for the Olympics and stuff. But I mean, that’s been happening all the time.”
“It got me a little mad and I was like, you know what? Once my leg fully 100% heals, I might get back into it.”
Conor Dwyer, Francis Haas, Ryan Lochte, and Michael Phelps in 2016.
Jean Catuffe/Getty
Phelps also aired his frustration last month during an interview with USA Today.
“For me, as a whole, I was pretty disappointed to see the U.S. swimming results,” Phelps said, though he said “you have to recognize” certain individual performances like Finke’s win in the 1,500-meter freestyle event.
Team USA has dominated swimming on the world’s stage for decades, often coming down to a one-on-one rivalry with the Australian team, who has enjoyed its own prolonged success in the pool.
Phelps attempted to rile up Team USA in an interview before the Olympics in which he pointed to taunts from the Australian team and said he would make the Australians “eat every word” they said about the U.S. team if he was competing in Paris.
Ryan Lochte in 2021.
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Lochte said his criticisms of Team USA after the 2024 Summer Games align with Phelps’ perspective, saying he believes U.S. swimmers need a stronger mentality coming into the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
“They just need to have more of a lion mentality, “Lochte says. “And I think that’s what [made] me and Phelps so different than everyone else, that we were always hungry. We didn’t care about the damn money, we didn’t care about any of that, even though it was good that we were getting it, we didn’t care about that. We wanted to swim and race the best in the world and become the best in the world. And so we always had that hunger inside of us, that lion mentality and that Mamba mentality [like] Kobe Bryant.”
Lochte continued: “We always had that mentality, and I don’t think these swimmers are getting it now. I think that’s one of the things that they’re missing. I mean, they’re still doing great amazing jobs, but that’s one little thing that they’re missing that could change everything.”
As for Lochte, who is still recovering from last November’s car crash, he says there’s “a 60, 70-percent chance that I would get back in the water and swim again just because of my feelings over the past Olympics and just how much I miss it and the things I could do differently.”
Lochte last swam competitively in 2021 when he failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. After the six-time gold medalist fell short in the U.S. trials, however, he clarified it was not the end of his career.
“I’m not retiring,” Lochte said then. “I’m not done.”
