Ryan Lochte, 36, misses out on fifth Olympic Games

Ryan Lochte, 36, would have been the oldest American man to ever qualify for the U.S. Olympic Swim Team. (Usa Today Sports)

Twelve-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte will not be headed to Tokyo for his fifth Olympic Games. 

The 36-year-old finished seventh in 1:59.67 in the 200-meter individual medley Friday night at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, his last chance to qualify. Had he made the team, he would have been the oldest man to ever qualify for a U.S. Olympic Swim Team.

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Michael Andrew finished first in 1:55.44 and was a second under world record pace the 150-mark before falling off. Chase Kalisz, the 2017 world champion in the event, was second in 1:56.97.

Lochte has owned the long course 200 IM world record since 2011 without much threat of it going down. No one other than Michael Phelps has ever come within a second of Lochte's 1:54.00. Lochte has been under 1:55 eight times in his career, but hasn't broken 1:57 since Rio 2016.

"This ain't the end of the road,” Lochte told NBC's Michele Tafoya after the race. “There's a lot more I want to accomplish in the sport of swimming, whether it's in the pool or outside the pool, making swimming bigger. That's my biggest goal.”

A return to the Olympics has long seemed improbable for Lochte, who spent a combined total of two of the last five years suspended from competition. But the star has maintained that his motivations now go beyond the allure of more Olympic hardware, and instead center on showing the world how he's changed since the infamous Rio gas station incident and the days of his reality TV show. 

Phelps, the only male American swimmer to compete at five Olympics, called the race alongside Rowdy Gaines and Mike Tirico Friday night. Dara Torres -- the oldest woman to make a U.S. Olympic Swim team, doing so at 41 -- also swam at five Games.

Sixteen swimmers overall have previously competed at five Olympics, per Olympedia