Q&A with Golden Goggles winner Ryan Lochte

On Monday night, Ryan Lochte won his second-consecutive Golden Goggles award as male swimmer of the year in the United States. The six-time Olympic medalist captured six golds this past summer at the Pan Pacific Championships, the season's major competition for U.S. swimmers. Earlier in the day, Lochte stopped by the SI offices to chat with our staff about his background, his accomplishments, his laid-back attitude and his sense of fashion.

SI.com: After winning swimmer of the year last season, was this year everything you wanted it to be?

Ryan Lochte: There were some spots where I thought I could have done a lot better in my races, but it was a good stepping stone for 2012.

SI.com: You can do 20 million events, which ones do you think you'll do in 2012?

Lochte: I honestly don't know. Every year I think I'm changing my events, just because I love the challenge, so I honestly don't know.

SI.com: If they arranged the schedule so the Games could be held over two weeks, so you wouldn't have to worry about events climbing on top of one another ...

Lochte: Oh, I'd swim every event.

SI.com: From the 50- to the 1,500-meter?

Lochte: Exactly. Every stroke. Every distance.

SI.com: How gassed are you at the end of the IMs?

Lochte: Not so much the 200, but at the end of the 400, I'm hurting. Once I touch that wall, I need a lifeguard or something. Honestly, your legs go in the backstroke. After the breaststroke, you arms go and then after that your whole body's hurting.

SI.com: For a long time, there was nothing you wouldn't eat. You were a McDonald's and soda guy. What changed?

Lochte: Actually last year I had knee surgery, so after my world championships in Rome, I was out of the water for seven months, and I just didn't want to get fat. Instead of eating fast food all the time I started eating salads and protein stuff.

SI.com: So when you are done with a big meet like the Pan Pacs, you can go out and eat anything ...

Lochte: Oh, I'm going to go out on a fast-food spree. I go to McDonald's.

SI.com: You've become swimming's fashion plate. You wore an all-white suit once to the Golden Goggles, which is supposed to be a black-tie event. What started that?

Lochte: With the first one, everyone wore tuxes and so I wore a suit. The next year everyone wore a black or blue suit, so I thought I'd change it. I wore a white suit.

SI.com: What's up with the green shoes?

Lochte: The green shoes, oh those are my babies. I designed everything about them. I teamed up with Speedo and they made me a shoe. They're crazy. The shoe itself is more like a high-top Supra shoe. I definitely spice it up. It's lime green with rhinestones around the whole shoe. On the bottom of it, it has my name so every time I walk on the pool deck, if it gets wet, it shows up [as] Ryan Lochte as I walk.

SI.com: So you really leave your footprint on the sport.

Lochte: Wherever I go.

SI.com: I asked you this once before. Tell me what "jeah" means. You've become known for saying that word all the time.

Lochte: I honestly don't know what it means. It's another word for "yeah." But instead of a "y" I say it with a "j." It just means everything. If someone asks if I had a good swim, I say, "jeah."