Question: Who is the greatest short-course swimmer to date?

Hint: It isn’t Michael Phelps or Mark Spitz or Johnny Weissmuller.

It’s Ryan Lochte, whose 21st gold medal came in the 800-meter free relay at the FINA World Short Course Championships Thursday in Doha. It was the event that launched him on the road to short-course history in 2004.

Lochte doesn’t always get the respect he deserves. For one thing, he has swum in the shadow of Michael Phelps – much as Novak Djokovic has played in the shadow of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. And it’s never easy to be “merely” excellent in the face of immortality.

For another, Lochte did himself no favors at the London Olympics, at which he was supposed to emerge from Phelps’ shadow, by underperforming – if you can call five medals underperforming – and allowing himself to be packaged as a frat-boy airhead.

The real Ryan Lochte is a superb swimmer with a big heart who gives away medals to youngsters at meets, signs every autograph, opens his home to fellow swimmers when they need a place to stay and even drove hundreds of miles to attend the funeral of a swimmer he didn’t even know. And while he may not be intellectual, he’s smarter and more articulate in interviews than our TMZ culture would have you believe.

Michael Phelps has entered an alcohol treatment program, this as USA Swimming has suspended him from the sport until March. (He has a Nov. 19 court date for his recent, second DUI arrest.) So he won’t be taking part in the short-course world championships in Doha, Qatar Dec. 3-7 with Ryan Lochte and company. (Maybe he wouldn’t have swum short course anyway.) In any event, no Phelpte for a while.

It’s all terribly sad, particularly as Phelps has been doing his usual superb Phelpsian job on the aquatic comeback trail. And you don’t want to take away something that gives a person purpose.

But sometimes in life you have to put your career on hold to get your house in order.

It is a humbling experience to ask for assistance. ...

The swimmer

Phelps gets help