Ryan Lochte is expected to compete at next week’s USA Swimming Pro Series meet in Santa Clara, Calif., his first appearance on the domestic U.S. tour since the Rio Olympics.
Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medalist in his first full season since his 10-month ban following the Rio gas-station incident, is joined in the Santa Clara field by Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel, Lilly King, Caeleb Dressel, Chase Kalisz and Ryan Murphy, among others.
Lochte has competed off and on since August 2017, but never at a top-level meet like on the Pro Series.
NBCSN and Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA will broadcast the June 7-10 meet, with coverage streaming on NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app.
Swimmers are preparing for the U.S. Championships in late July in Irvine, Calif., and the Pan Pacific Championships in late August in Tokyo. Those two meets are the qualifiers for the 2019 World Championships in South Korea.
There is one Pro Series meet between Santa Clara and the U.S. Championships. That’s in Columbus, Ohio, from July 6-8.
Another swimmer scheduled to make a Pro Series comeback next week is 37-year-old Anthony Ervin, who in Rio became the oldest individual Olympic swimming champion by four years by taking the 50m freestyle. Ervin, who failed to make the 2017 World Championships team, is competing on the Pro Series for the first time since last year’s Santa Clara meet.
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