American swimmer Matthew Klotz has been cast for Season 25 of the reality television show Big Brother.
The show, a version of the original Dutch reality show of the same name, puts a group of contestants (usually young) in a house together isolated from the outside world under constant surveillance.
Throughout the season, contestants, known as HouseGuests, are voted out of the competition by their fellow competitors and a public vote. Contestants compete in games for certain privileges, like Head of House, who gets to nominate people for eviction, and vetos to overrule others’ nominations.
There is also a 24/7 live stream that the public can pay to access to watch what’s happening in the house at any given time.
The show airs several times a week over a period of almost three months.
The winner of the competition takes home $750,000 in prize money. HouseGuests (on non-celebrity seasons) also receive $1,000 for each week they stay in the house.
Katz, who was born deaf, is a Deaf Swimming World Record holder and a Deaflympics Gold Medalist. A native of northern California, he swam collegiately at LSU, where as a senior in 2020 he finished 12th in the 100 back.
Klotz is lingual, which means that he reads lips and that his speech is generally indiscernible from a hearing person.
Now training under new LSU head coach Rick Bishop, Klotz returned to racing earlier this summer for the first time in over a year.
Klotz is not the first swimmer to appear on the American version of the show: 12-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte appeared on a celebrity season (he was allowed to train during filming).
Klotz is not the first swimmer to have appeared on reality television. While most, like Australian Emily Seebohm, have appeared in their capacity as celebrities, some other former swimmers have become far more famous for their exploits in the reality sphere. The prime example is former Florida State All-American Robby Hayes, who appeared on the 12th season of ABC’s dating show The Bachelorette where he was the runner-up.
He would eventually appear on the 4th season of Bachelor in Paradise and parlay that into a recurring role on the MTV unscripted series Siesta Key.
The 2023 World Deaf Swimming Championships kick off on August 14 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
You’re my favorite Big Brother housemate EVER. I mean it
Let’s go Matt!
Survivor legend Tyson Apostol swam for BYU. He wasn’t an all American but still a college swimmer. The GOAT Yul also swam and played wo-po in high school