OMAHA — Ryan Lochte was off to a rough start at the United States Olympic trials even before he climbed on the blocks Sunday night for the second step in his defense of his Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley.
The nonstop American Airlines flight that Lochte and his SwimMAC teammates had taken from North Carolina had encountered cabin-pressurization problems. The plane flew below 10,000 feet for several minutes before the pilots made an emergency landing in Kansas City, Mo.
Instead of arriving here Thursday at 3 p.m., Lochte and his teammates pulled into their downtown hotel in two vans around midnight.