Long Beach is platform for Lochte now

It used to be a fixture in January.

Michael Phelps would roll into Long Beach and kick off the swim season, more or less, with an experimental schedule, testing himself in the short-course meet.

Now Phelps and his eight Olympic gold medals are just coming off his post-Beijing hiatus.

He only recently got back in the pool, starting to resume his normal swim routine, having moved back to his home base in Baltimore from Ann Arbor, Mich. If anyone deserves a break, it would be Phelps.

Which is the longer way of saying that Phelps won’t be at the four-day Southern California Swimming Grand Prix in Long Beach for the first time in three years.

The meet started with a light schedule Friday night with finals in the men’s and women’s 1,000-yard freestyle. Chloe Sutton won the women’s race in 9 minutes 33.50 seconds, and Ous Mellouli won the men’s race in 8:54.17.

The meet continues through Monday at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool.

There will be a handful of other U.S. Olympians on the deck. Typically, there aren’t a ton of stars in action at this stage of the quadrennial with swimmers weighing their future or taking off a big block of time.

The biggest name entered is the multitalented and world-record holder Ryan Lochte, who won four medals in Beijing, two gold and two bronze. One gold came in the 800-meter freestyle relay and the other was in the 200 backstroke, in which he set the world record.

His bronze medals were in the two individual medley races, the 200 and 400.

In Long Beach, he is set for an active schedule, ranging from the 50 freestyle to the 200 backstroke.

Other Olympians entered include Matt Grevers, Lacey Nymeyer and Sutton, who competed in the open-water event in Beijing. Grevers won three medals in Beijing, a silver in the 100 backstroke behind Aaron Peirsol and two medals in relays.

The other big name of note is former USC swimmer Mellouli, who sparked a huge amount of national pride in his native Tunisia when he won a gold medal in the 1,500 freestyle.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com

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Swimming Grand Prix

Where: Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool, Long Beach

When: Through Monday.

Hours: Preliminaries start at 9 a.m. Finals begin at 5 p.m., except Monday when they start at 4 p.m.

Who: Among the top swimmers entered are Olympians Ryan Lochte, Matt Grevers and Lacey Nymeyer and Ous Mellouli, who represented his native Tunisia.

-- Lisa Dillman