Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Six Olympic golds, laid-back charm and a chiseled body propelled US swim star Ryan Lochte to celebrity, where mouth jewelry and his “Jeah!” catch-phrase carried as much cachet as his exploits in the pool.
Lochte, 32, is now in trouble with Brazilian authorities over his account of a gunpoint robbery in Rio. But given his past year, it is not yet clear whether it will harm his future.
Lochte’s crossover popularity reached its apotheosis during and after the London Olympics — where his off-the-cuff comments on everything from one-night-stands to peeing in the training pool made him a social media sensation and a television favorite.
The almost-obligatory reality TV series “What Would Ryan Lochte Do?” followed, only to be cancelled after eight episodes.
In his fourth Olympics, Lochte arrived in Rio still resisting the kind of elder statesman status embraced by superstar teammate Michael Phelps.
Missing his Grillz mouth jewelry, Lochte gave the Twitterati plenty to chew on with a blue-tinged platinum blonde hair-do and a Snapchat photo featuring himself with Playboy Playmate Kayla Rae Reid snuggled on his lap on a visit to the Beats House hospitality suite in Rio.
US swimming’s unrepentant playboy contested just one individual event in Rio, settling for fifth in the 200m individual medley as Phelps snagged yet another gold.
He earned a sixth career gold — and 12th Olympic medal — in the 4x200m freestyle relay and insisted that unlike Phelps, he wasn’t yet ready to hang up his goggles.
“I’m gonna keep doing it until I stop having fun,” said Lochte, although his latest escapade has soured amid mounting signs that Lochte’s story of being robbed at gunpoint after a night out partying was fabricated.
Lochte was already back in America, leaving teammates Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz to face the music in Brazil. Reports on Thursday said the revellers had in fact broken down a door at a gas station bathroom and fought with a security guard.
It was not clear how the fiasco might affect Lochte’s future plans, which he said in Rio still included swimming — even if he doesn’t make it to Tokyo in 2020.
“I’m not done with the sport,” Lochte said.
And while he is dominating headlines, Lochte and his fellow swimmers Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and James Feigen have had some words of sympathy from the Rio Olympics organises who apologised for the supposed robbery on Sunday.
“I do not regret having apologised,” Rio 2016 chief spokesman Mario Andrada said Thursday. Nor did he demand an apology in return.
“We need to understand that these kids were trying to have fun,” he added. “They trained for at least four years and they competed under gigantic pressure.”
“Let’s give these kids a break. Sometimes you take actions that you later regret,” he added. “Lochte is one of the best swimmers of all times. They made a mistake, it is part of life.”
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