Twelve-time Olympic medal-winning swimmer Ryan Lochte has addressed his recent decision to accept a $30,000-a-year assistant coaching position at Missouri State University, revealing the intense personal and mental health struggles that led to this new chapter.
In a revealing disclosure, the 41-year-old champion detailed a rocky few years marked by crippling depression, substance abuse, a near-fatal car wreck, and an ongoing, bitter divorce from his estranged wife.
Lochte traced the onset of his severe depression back to his failure to make a fifth Olympic team at the 2021 trials.
“After the 2021 Olympic trials, I was in a very big depression,” the six-time gold medal winner reveals.”My mental health was gone and the household that I was living in, it was toxic and it wasn’t good for me. I was lost and it didn’t help that my other partner at the time would say, ‘You’re worthless, you’re a loser. You need to get up and get a job.’ And I was like, ‘I really can’t. I don’t know what to do. I’m lost.”
Following a 2023 car accident, Lochte admitted he dived into alcohol and drugs. “I just did it to escape the hell that I was living in,” he says. “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?”
He spent time in a rehabilitation facility in August 2025 and has since committed to therapy, stating that he has completely left drug use behind. Of his split from his wife, he shares, “We lost the love for each other a long, long time ago and we just stayed together for the kids and I was getting just beaten down emotionally and I turned to drugs and alcohol.”
The swimming icon also clarified his financial situation, refuting media speculation that he took the low-paying coaching job out of financial desperation.
Lochte recently raised $385,000 by selling nine of his Olympic medals, noting, “The medals, they were just collecting dust in a sock drawer.”
He maintains active income through corporate sponsorships and added, “I’m financially A-OK to support me and my entire Brady Bunch family. I took this job because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this. When I was swimming, I had a fire burning inside of me of becoming the best and that’s what drove me every day, every year.”
Reflecting on his infamous 2016 Rio Olympics scandal, where he lied about being robbed at gunpoint, Lochte acknowledged the long road back.
“It was the biggest wake-up call,” he says. “It was the biggest fall that I’ve ever had and I fell into a black hole and I couldn’t get out.”
He notes that the experience highlighted gaps in his preparation for stardom: “No-one ever taught me what happens when you become famous or when you get all this money. No one ever told me about financial literacy. No one ever told me about ever when you’re on top of the mountain and you fall down, how to get back up. No one never taught me that. But now I did it. I guess I was the guinea pig for myself and now I can honestly change people’s lives.”
Central to his recovery has been his relationship with his new partner, Molly Gillihan, whom he credits with helping him regain his identity. The couple plan to relocate to Missouri in July 2026, with Lochte maintaining joint custody of his three children and visiting them in Florida monthly.
Reflecting on his journey and the support he received from fellow Olympic legend Michael Phelps, Lochte expressed peace with his past, stating, “The only good thing about all the highs and lows that I’ve been through is I can help other people out now. I’m a free bird and I’m loving life to the fullest and nothing’s knocking me down.”