Ryan Lochte Qualifies for 200-Meter Individual Medley Final at U.S. Swim Trials

Six-time gold medalist Ryan Lochte is one race away from his fifth Olympics. 

The swimmer, who will turn 37 on Aug. 3, qualified for the 200-meter individual medley final at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Nebraska, on Thursday.

Lochte clocked a time of 1 minute, 58.65 seconds in his semifinal heat, roughly 1.5 seconds behind the leader, 27-year-old Chase Kalisz. 

After the second heat, Lochte was slotted sixth of the eight swimmers who had advanced. Michael Andrew, 22, paced the field into the final with a time of 1:55.26. 

The final will be contested on Friday. 

Lochte is a long-shot to celebrate his 37th birthday in Tokyo based on Thursday's performances. In fact, instead of an Olympic trip, he could very well lose his world record later down the line this summer. 

His world record time is 1:54:00, which he logged at World Championships in Shanghai in 2011.

Andrew was on pace to challenge that for much of his swim: 

And even though he fell short, his 1:55.26 was more than a full second faster than his previous PR for the year, which was 1:56.84, and put him in good company heading into what's likely to be multiple IMs in his near future: 

Lochte fell short in the 200m freestyle on Monday, finishing 25th with a time of 1:49.23 in the preliminary round. He was also entered in the 400 IM and the 100 backstroke, but scratched both events. 

His best outing at the Olympics came in 2012 in London, where he won two gold medals and a pair of silver medals, four years after he picked up two golds and two bronze medals in Beijing. 

Most recently, he was a member of the 4x200 freestyle relay squad that won gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, though his victory was overshadowed by controversy. Lochte claimed that he and his teammates were robbed at gunpoint, and he was eventually charged with filing a false report—a crime punishable by up to 18 months in prison. 

While a Brazilian court threw out the case in 2017, Lochte served a 10-month suspension from USA Swimming and lost the support of four major sponsors, including Speedo USA. 

When he tried to get back into racing following that ban, he was suspended for 14 months in July 2018 after an investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found he was injected with an illegal amount of fluid, though the substance injected was not illegal.

Lochte, now a father of two, can count on at least one more race in his decorated career.