Lochte, a laid-back Floridian, cut out the fast food and the odd boozy evenings with his students friends, and redoubled his efforts in the pool. The rewards followed thick and fast: he took both 200m and 400m medley gold at the World Championships in Rome in 2009 and then defended both titles in Shanghai last year. To cap it all, in the 200m medley he broke the world record, the first to fall since the super-suits were banned at the beginning of 2010.