The 2nd most decorated Olympic swimmer of all-time, American Ryan Lochte, may be making another appearance within the reality TV realm. Although not yet confirmed by its airing network, ABC, Lochte is reportedly on the short list of the next crew of stars to take to the dance floor on the upcoming season of ‘Dancing With The Stars.’
Both ABC and Lochte representatives are keeping quiet on the rumors, but several mainstream media outlets, including The Washington Post and ESPN Olympics, have reported that sources have revealed the 32-year-old is slated to appear. The definitive cast is set to be announced on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ on Tuesday, August 30th.
In the meantime, Lochte is on the other side of a drunken gas station incident occurring with teammates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen in Rio, which resulted in the Brazilian police getting involved and Feigen paying approximately $11,000 to return to the U.S. All Americans are home safely and have since issued their own apologetic accounts of the situation.
Since the incident, however, Lochte has lost four major sponsors, including Speedo, with whom the former Gator has had a business relationship for the better part of a decade.
As far as reality TV forays, Lochte is no stranger to the screen, as he previously starred in his own show, ‘What Would Ryan Lochte Do?’ on the E! network back in 2013.
Why media always prefer talking about bad things than good things?
Why always exaggerate?
Fear people. Depress people. Make people anger.
That’s a political process. And we know the goal. Developing populism and abstention. And we know who always benefits from abstention in all our democracies….
It didn’t make much press in France but looks like that’s the affair of the century in USA! We talk about sport during olympic games!
Lochte made a big mistake. He didn’t represent well his country in Rio. He will pay the consequences. No need to talk again and again about that.
I hope American media have still talked a little bit about the great results of US athletes… Read more »
I’m with you Bobo. And I used to think it was an intentional tactic by the media in concert with politicians and rich people, but now I think the reality is that this is what the majority of people want to see/hear/read. We’ve become an alarmist, fearful, judgmental culture, and the business of media is all about views, clicks, and ratings. So they give the people what they want, focus to the point of absurdity on these ultimately insignificant occurrences, blow them out of proportion, and ignore things like journalistic integrity and due diligence, with the result being distracting everyone from the good things happening.
This is coming from the Queen of Exaggeration.
ryan arguing to be on the show… “I’m a peacock, you gotta let me fly!!!”
btw that’s a line from a movie.
If Lochte plans to swim in 2020, this is the kind of thing that will surely hinder his progress.I fear this will be the end: careers never seem to soar after an appearance on this show. And in Lochte’s case already. showbiz helped ruin his performance and helped feed his ego in unhealthy ways. I wish he’d get just back in the pool, where he’s natural, fun to watch, and–except for those 20 second interviews–completely silent.
Go back to Coach Troy, Ryan! Media and you do not go together.
Coach Troy might be great; Gainesville, which is a huge college party scene (trust me, I’ve lived there three times), would not be. He’s already had a few brushes with the law there even while with Coach Troy.
He just needs to grow the f… up.
Lochte has been involved in past incidents before. Strange he didn’t really learn from these past indiscretions?
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/19/sport/ryan-lochte-profile/index.html
“According to police records, he was issued three different citations and arrested once while at the University of Florida. Lochte received a disorderly conduct citation in 2010, a citation for public urination in 2005 and a separate trespassing citation in 2005”.
Jeah!
Well, Phelps didn’t either from his first DUI. Took him staring at a one year prison sentence, which he pled out of, on his second DUI conviction to get it together. He was just lucky it was in 2014, the deadest point in the Olympic cycle for swimming coverage by the media.
Wouldn’t it be great if he gets to dance a Samba on the show.
Oh, dear Lord! Shoot me in the forehead now!!
THE BOY JUST WANTS TO DANCE, DAD!!!
He can dance if he wants to…. he can leave his friends behind.
….Because his friends don’t dance, and if they don’t dance then they’re no friends of mine!!!!
As irony would have it, most of the Olympic sponsor money leading up to each Olympics is based on the PRIOR Olympics. USA swimmers Nathan Adrian, Missy Franklin, et al did cash in for what that was worth. Now the sponsor board and money to be had hits the reset button for the next cycle. Without this debacle Lochte’s sponsor appeal was lower anyways based on poor 2016 Olympic performance.
To the extent he’s scrambling to do stuff like this both makes sense and, as a practical matter, is all he can do regardless of the notoriety to the negative.
Also, in some regards Ryan is also trashing down the size of the endorsement pool for all swimmers.… Read more »
While I generally agree with you, there will be many viewers of that show (if he actually does it — talks were apparently in the works well before the Olympics) who will be swayed by his backstage charm and doofus-ness, humility as he stumbles on the dance floor, and cuddles with their favorite dancer. He’ll take the harsh judges’ criticism with a smile and disappointment, and America will love him again. They’ll probably have a story line of one of the judges or dancers who are deeply offended by his inclusion. When the cast eventually stamps their seal of approval on him as one of the guys who worked so hard (as they always do), it will help his image… Read more »
Plus Lochte should strongly consider going to rehab. Regardless of his degree of fault for the gas station incident, the fact that drinking got him in that much trouble, and he gave that Billy Bush interview while still drunk, suggests a drinking problem. Addressing that should be his #1 priority.
I agree with that. People outside of the swimming world only care so much about the sport. And now the second biggest household name just put some damage on his image. Keeping himself in the spotlight hurts all the other swimmers looking to cash in like Dirado and Adrian. Plus some other swimmers like Manuel, Murphy, Lilly King, who will be looking to cash in during the next cycle.
haha, I thought you are going to say that the 4 sponsors just freed up money to sign new swimmers. Speedo needs some new and young faces. They were behind TYR and Arena in signing new US swimmers probably because they have several Olympians on their payroll.
Actually, the hard part for these companies is that many of the star swimmers in this Rio games are collage swimmers whom not planning on turning Pro. The rest were either already picked up sponsor just before Olympics.
Lochte is now a professional celebrity first and swimmer second. He’s the Lamar Odom of our sport: far more known for what he did in the gas station than what he did in the pool. He’s doing exactly what he should, maximize celebrity now through platforms like Dancing with the Stars. He would be great on The Apprentice too.
I don’t think Lochte does “low key” or “self exile” well. The guy started as a fast swimmer with a “personality” and now is a 32 year old “personality” who has been a fast swimmer. It looks like he’s fully embracing his celebrity, then in six to 12 months he should consider what he wants for his future in swimming.… Read more »
Come on. Odom almost killed himself clubbing and drugging with prostitutes! Did ryan make some poor choices? Yes. I remember when he was asked to comment on phelps DUI. He said you always make sure you have a driver and dont drink and drive. I am disgusted with the continuous hatred and holier than though garbage directed at him. He partied. He peed in bushes behind a gas station. He pulled off a $2 sign from a wall. He tells his mom he was held up AND he was held up. He should have gone to the coaches and told the incident to them and not done the interview. Amen.
You know who’s even dumber than Lochte? The self-appointed Lochte Defense Team, who just won’t let the discussion die. The best thing that could happen for him is for people to forget about all of this (or at least the most sordid details), which won’t happen so long as there is a movement to revise history and other people are around who remember the truth. Lochte lied. And insisting that he didn’t is yet another lie.
Do him a favor and stop bringing up discussions that are unfavorable to him. It’s still a fact that he told the press on August 14th that “he took my wallet” when, in fact, no one took nothing at all from him (unless… Read more »