Swimmers Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz move past Rio controversy involving Ryan Lochte
INDIANAPOLIS — Ever since they returned from the Rio Olympics — which wasn’t easy, if you recall passports being held and two of the swimmers being pulled off flights — Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen knew their names would be forever linked, along with Ryan Lochte’s, to the infamous gas station incident that overshadowed the second week of the Games.
And as Conger explained this week here at the 2017 U.S. national championships, the three swimmers also realized it would take quite an effort to put the whole embarrassing ordeal behind them. Their punishment, handed down in September by USA Swimming and the U.S. Olympic Committee, included four-month suspensions among myriad other penalties.
But the task of moving on from causing an international incident isn’t exactly impossible. Time passing helps. Swimming fast helps even more.
Conger led wire-to-wire and won the 200-meter butterfly final (1 minute, 54.47 seconds) Tuesday, earning a spot on the U.S. national team headed to the world championships in Budapest, Hungary, next month. This comes on the heels of an NCAA championships in which the Texas swimmer, then a senior, set a U.S. record and captured an individual title in the 200-yard fly.
Conger says he’s happy he made the roster for worlds, adding he expects with more rest and fine-tuning he can swim even better in Budapest.
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But even without that next chapter written — worlds will be his first major international meet since Rio — Conger is pleased with the resilience he has seen in himself after such a trying time last summer.
“It was an entire emotional roller coaster,” he said after winning the 200 fly. “You learn a lot about yourself when that kind of stuff hits you. You either kind of get up from it, or you let it keep you down, kick you down and you stay there. I learned a lot about myself, my friends and my family. It was definitely super important to me that I came out swinging and fighting, and it means the world to me now that I’m swimming fast again. I stamped my ticket, and I’m ready to go for worlds.
“It’s definitely relieving to know that as I’m trying to put that in the past and look forward to the future.”
Bentz is still trying to make the world championship roster himself, though perhaps his best chances are behind him. He failed to qualify in the 200 free and 400 individual medley earlier this week; he still has the 200 IM on Saturday.
However, Bentz’s strong swim and third-place finish Thursday night in the 400 IM secured him a spot on the World University Games roster. His time (4:11.66) was a personal best, though not fast enough to beat former Georgia teammate Chase Kalisz and current teammate Jay Litherland.
“I’m really happy with that — I haven’t really dropped a lot of time in that event since I was 17, so I’m pumped,” Bentz said.
Bentz, too, said he’s learned a great deal from his experiences over the last year, which he characterized as some ups but a lot of downs, including the death of his club coach a few months ago.
“A lot of obstacles, but I think it does make you stronger, which is a cliche thing to say,” Bentz told USA TODAY Sports Thursday night. “We’re always maturing as athletes, and that includes racing, and inside and outside the pool. Knowing who you are and who you need to be is big.”
Which has been particularly important to him as he’s thought about the infamous incident in Rio.
“That’s going to be something that’s always in my past,” Bentz said. "But it’s going to be something I look back on and ask myself, ‘What did I do after that to change and get better?’ "
Feigen has not competed since participating in the 4x100 free relay at the Rio Olympics. He was entered in the 50 and 100 frees here at nationals but withdrew before the start of competition.
Lochte, who received the heaviest punishment of the group, is serving a 10-month suspension from USA Swimming-sanctioned events. He initially embellished a story of being robbed after a late night out partying, saying during a TV interview that an armed guard posing as a police officer pointed a gun to his forehead. A USA TODAY Sports investigation later found that he and his three teammates were held at gunpoint by guards and were forced to pay money after allegedly causing damage to an advertising sign before they were allowed to leave.
As part of his punishment, Lochte is ineligible to compete in the 2017 worlds. Lochte, who became a new dad this month, has said he will train to swim in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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