Next month, former Florida Gators swimmer and 12-time Olympic Medal winner Ryan Lochte will leave Gainesville for a $30,000-a-year assistant coaching job with Missouri State swimming.
Well, that, and a fresh start.
Lochte’s story, told at length last month by the New York Post, highlights the dangers of addiction, depression and toxic relationships.
It didn’t have to be this way. In 2007, I interviewed Lochte when he adorned the cover of Gainesville Magazine, a former Gainesville Sun publication. He was 22 years old then, with matinee-idol looks and two Olympic medals already in his pocket, not to mention seven national titles, seven SEC titles and 24 All-American honors with UF.
During Florida’s Camelot years, when UF won back-to-back national titles in basketball in 2006 and 2007 and football titles in 2006 and 2008, Lochte was as big a star on campus as Tim Tebow and Joakim Noah. But former UF swim coach Gregg Troy warned of Lochte’s ascension into the limelight back then, concerned with how Lochte’s out-of-the-pool activities impacted his training.
Lochte went on to win 10 more Olympic medals, including a gold and world record in the 200-meter backstroke at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (1:56.53). He also starred in a reality TV show on E! in 2013, which documented his Joe Namath-like life as bachelor on University Avenue in Gainesville. It lasted just five episodes.
How former Florida swimmer Ryan Lochte fell into depression, substance abuse
The fall from grace for Lochte started the 2016 games in Rio, when he was charged with a false claim of a robbery after vandalizing a gas station restroom with U.S. Olympic teammate Jimmy Feigen. Witness reports claimed Lochte was drunk at the time.
In 2018, Lochte was suspended by the United States Anti-Doping Agency for 14 months for receiving a “prohibited intravenous infusion.” Then, in 2021, Lochte failed to qualify for his fifth Olympic Games.
That’s when Lochte fell into a deep depression, which impacted his marriage. He divorced from his ex-wife Kayla Rae Reid in 2025. The couple now have split custody of their three children, Caiden (8), Liv (6) and Georgia (2).
Lochte also turned back to alcohol and drugs after a near-fatal car wreck 2023.
“I just did it to escape the hell that I was living in,” Lochte told The Post. “It was mostly weed and cocaine. Yeah, it’s horrible. I look at myself now and I’m just like, what the hell was I ever thinking?”
But Lochte has found a new lease on life since starting a relationship with Molly Gillihan, whom he met in Gainesville while taking his kids to school. Lochte says he’s now clean and sober and is moving with Gillihan to Missouri to be closer to her family. He still plans to return to Florida once a month to visit his children.
Why Florida swimmer Ryan Lochte deserves a second chance
For Lochte, who will turn 42 in August, plenty of life remains on the runway to write a new chapter.
As a society, we often misjudge addiction as a character flaw rather than what it truly is − a medical issue. There are hereditary components.
Addiction touches countless lives and families. It’s touched mine.
Maybe that’s why I have a soft spot for Lochte, for second chances, for those who display their flaws on the most public of stages, falling down only to get back up again.
If Lochte can teach a swimmer in Missouri not to make the choices he made, to understand the nature of addiction and its pitfalls, he will have achieved a feat as notable as all those medals he won decades ago.
Let’s hope he does. Let’s hope he finds happiness, back in the pool, back to the sport he loves.
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: I’m rooting for Ryan Lochte. Why you should, too | Brockway
Reporting by Kevin Brockway, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
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