earlier this year I had the chance to sit down with 12-time Olympic medalist Ryan locky for an episode of my podcast we talked about his rivalry with Michael Phelps over the years his journey to fatherhood and much more but what you couldn't see was that Ryan was in an immense amount of discomfort still recovering from his near-death car accident that took place just months before in November of 2023 after Ryan and I spoke on the podcast we decided not to release the clip until Ryan was fully recovered and back to 100% which was a long journey of perseverance and love from his family and friends now in a neverbe seen clip Ryan shares all the moments leading up to the accident and his new outlook on life without further Ado here's Ryan [Music] locky talk to me a little bit about that that incident the the car crash um and you know your new outlook on life now when I said that took me for a d busy um I still have I still have some nightmares um it's been a month so far I still get scared when I like go to the car to go to like my physical therapy I still have visions of the wreck I still have visions of white lights flashing in my eyes not knowing that not knowing that I'd wake up and see my family again but now when I wake up I'm so thankful at a blink of an eye your life can be over I'm just so thankful that no one got injured except me and my kids weren't in the car I was on the way to pick them up from school I was headed down this big street uh four laid Street um and this trash truck was like parked in the middle of the street like on the side but like in in the street no flashing lights no cones no nothing there's just there and the car in front of me swerved and got out and then I immediately tried to swerve and I clipped I didn't really clip because I freaking ran into the damn thing the corner of the truck and you know that saying um built forward tough yeah best freaking car truck out there Ford anyone investigators cops people that were on the other side of the road stopped my friends that were driving after picking up their kids driving home came try to come get me they were like he's dead he's dead he's not breathing he's dead blood gushing from my head still have a couple stitches in there broke my femur completely broke my femur in half total my car my car was indented my truck I meant Fort they built a freaking Beast of a truck I had a Ford F-150 Platinum Edition it was a beast a beast um luckily thank God that I only had a broken femur and a couple stitches it's still hard for me to walk um but I'm doing PT my health is there my kids is safe everyone else is safe that was uh the people that were in the truck everyone everyone's safe you know how I said earlier I wasn't really religious but I believ someone was up there and did that extra 5% to for me to see it I thought God was watching me and it was like it's not your time scariest freaking thing I've ever been um that and when my son was born I was scared CRA shitless because I didn't want to fail as a father being in that crash I knew he saved me and the investigator said like anyone I've seen this multiple times and usually I have to go to the hospital and put your um put someone's hand in handcuffs and time to the bed because they were at drinking but you weren't drinking um or I have to tell their like their relatives that he's dead I can't believe how you did this but you have a savior and I mean I guess I'm a cat that has nine lives I don't know what life I'm on now but it saved me and like always it's a bump in the road a huge bump in the road but I got to keep moving forward and and moving forward you will and I'm I'm excited to hear a little bit more about your recovery in the coming months you know you got the swimming community behind you cheering you on and we're all we're wishing for the best for you Riot hey you know on a little secret um my head coach from University of Florida Greg Troy best coach in the world was checking up on me being like hey I heard you were in a wreck oh my gosh well you know the best thing for physical therapy is swimming I'm like screw you coach I'm like I am not swimming I'm done I did it for 32 years every day of my life I'm done he was like no this is what you're going to do you're going to start we're going to only go like once or twice a week and you're going to get back in the pool and you're going to break a world record doing Masters I love that I'm like okay you're the boss I got to get my leg better first sure sure hey all in due time all in due time