Ryan Lochte is auctioning off three of his Olympic gold medals. What do you think his medals will go for?
We are putting the line at the total of the three medals from when Greg Louganis put his medals up for auction earlier this year.
- Example: Upvote if you think Lochte’s medals will go for the same or more than $430K, downvote if you think it will be less
Over/under is a typical wager used in sports-books. With this, no money will be involved. Simply put, we do the over/unders, you have fun and upvote or downvote, have some friendly debate in the comments.
Last Week’s Results:
No World Records were broken at the 2025 US Open meaning the under hit, which had 121 votes compared to just 45 for the over. Two US Open Records were broken with Summer McIntosh breaking the 400 free and 200 fly. With the line at 4.5, this also means the under hit. The under had 117 votes while the over had just 38.
Two Weeks Ago Results:
The over hit for all but one event with the men’s 100 fly only having two men sub-44.
| Number Of Sub-XX | Number Under at 2025 NCAAs | Over/Under | Number of Sub-Swims | + Votes | – Votes | ||
| 50 Free | Sub-19 | 7 | 14 | 9 | 16 | 93 | 8 |
| 100 Free | Sub-42 | 7 | 25* | 12 | 22 | 98 | 8 |
| 100 Back | Sub-45 | 3 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 62 | 34 |
| 100 Breast | Sub-51 | 2 | 11 | 5 | 8 | 63 | 38 |
| 100 Fly | Sub-44 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 38 | 65 |
stay classy san diego.
I think I’ll bid to help a chap out.
Do any of the medals come with a signed poster of that gas station in Brazil where he was “robbed”
This is a much better item for the auction.
I bet Notre Dame could help with this parlay.
Under.
Jeah…
Slamming the under
Agreed. Smashing it like it’s a bathroom door at a Rio gas station.
Over/under: Lochte’s medals go for 430K
Please take this article down. Please read the notes from others who also feel this is distasteful.
He is a fully-grown adult athlete choosing to sell some of his Olympic gold medals; he happens to have a surplus of international medals. This is just a trivia curiosity. While I realize not everyone is delighted with his decision to proceed with this, I don’t quite understand the pearl-clutching here.
The objection is to the game being played . The under/over.
This is a new level of extreme moralism, even for swimming.
We can’t talk about what we think an Olympic medal is going to sell for?? You don’t find that interesting at all? Why is everyone projecting so much of their own bullsh!t onto this???
A tree is blocking your view of the forest.
Really though? Why? I’m still confused…. The under/over game being played is a safe, fun, responsible way to get swim fans talking about an auction where the real value of the medals will ultimately be decided.
This game isn’t disrespectful to Lochte in any way and it’s certainly not disrespectful to the “sanctity” of Olympic Gold Medals. The games meant to engage the audience of swimswam in a different way than what we’re used to in journalism/reporting (i.e. writing and posting an article and readers consuming its info with little or no interaction).
If anything, I would imagine Lochte is grateful to swimswam for the added publicity surrounding the auction. The more people who know about it, the more… Read more »
Because swimming people are obsessed with this idea of “doing it all for free.” They want to believe that an Olympic medal is a priceless object that can’t be sold, and that anybody selling it must be doing so because they’re emotionally destroyed, and that by talking about it, everyone else is laughing at the person doing it.
In reality…Lochte has entered treatment and is coming out the other end of it. He’s making this decision probably the healthiest he’s been in a long, long time.
The pearl clutching is truly bizarre. I think it’s a lot of projecting – people who think ‘gosh I would have to be at rock bottom to sell my Olympic medal if I ever… Read more »
I concur. Good job to your team for standing your ground.
Braden, do you think Ledecky will do the same? Why or why not?
This is happening because Lochte is not in a good place. Period.
Justify this over/under all you want. It’s classless.
I looked up the Louganis sale. Clearly he wasn’t in a great place either. He admitted that he needed the money.
Has anyone sold medals happily? (I’m not talking about the fake happiness that we saw in Lochte’s announcement.)
I maintain that this is a sad situation.
While I’m with you on the skepticism in this case, there are plenty of examples of Olympic athletes auctioning their medals for charity. The most recent one I can think of was a Polish Olympian who auctioned off her silver medal to pay for a child’s surgery (The buyer also let her keep it, which was pretty cool).
No one is saying that’s the case for anyone who sells their medals but it certainly seems to be the case with Ryan. He is clearly not being honest about the charity angle (no one who is having their house foreclosed on is donating to charity), and honestly it’s baffling you aren’t a little more critical of his narrative as a journalist.
Again..I am not objecting to the selling of medals.