Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte shares video of recovery from near-fatal crash

Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and his wife shared an Instagram reel this week showing clips of his road to recovery after near-fatal car crash almost a year ago.

The video, posted Wednesday, opens with a clip of Lochte, 40, in a wheelchair and a boy, that appears to be his son, wheeling him into a house that is decorated for Christmas.

It then flashes to a clip of Lochte struggling to walk with a walker while wearing a hospital gown, followed by a clip of him in a doctor's office showing stitches that run almost the length of his thigh, from his hip to his knee.

The final clip shows Lochte jogging with a slight limp through a sunny neighborhood.

"Life's setbacks may knock you down, but they set the stage for an even stronger comeback!" the caption said. "This guy has been putting in the work one step at a time, literally!"

The Instagram post did not include details about the car accident or the injury, but Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medalist, appeared on the Athletes Only podcast with host Kyle Millis in January, where he talked about it.

Millis explained in a video posted to his YouTube account last month that they decided to hold off on sharing the portion of the interview in which Lochte talked about the accident until Lochte was "fully recovered and back to 100%."

In the interview, Lochte said the accident, which occurred in November, "took me for a doozy." He said he still was having nightmares a month after the crash and was fearful to get into the car to go into physical therapy appointments.

Through tears, Lochte said he still has visions of white lights flashing and "not knowing that I'd wake up and see my family again."

"But now when I wake up, I'm so thankful," Lochte said. "In the blink of an eye, your life can be over."

Lochte said he was driving to pick up his kids from school, headed down a four-lane street, when the car in front of him swerved to avoid a trash truck parked in the middle of the road.

When Lochte also tried to swerve out of the way, he hit the garbage truck.

Police, investigators, others on the road and friends nearby all stopped what they were doing to come to Lochte's aid, he said, adding that they thought he wasn't breathing and had died.

Lochte said he "completely broke my femur in half" and that there was blood gushing out of gashes in his head. His car — a Ford truck, that Lochte affectionately called "a beast" — was totaled.

"Thank God that I only had a broken femur and a couple stitches," Lochte said, adding that he still struggles to walk but that he's in physical therapy for his injuries.

Lochte said one of the investigators later told him typically with similar accidents he has to go to the hospital and either handcuff the crash victim to the bed because they had been drinking or tell the victim's relatives they had died.

"I guess I'm a cat that has nine lives," Lochte said with a chuckle. "It's a bump in the road, a huge bump in the road, but I got to keep moving forward."

Lochte swam and medaled in four consecutive Olympics. His last appearance was at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janiero.