Ryan Lochte dives into the deep end with ‘DWTS’
Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte isn’t going into hiding after the roaring controversy that followed his challenged robbery accusation in Rio. Instead, he’ll step into the limelight next month on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.
Lochte, 32, easily the buzziest entry in a field of 13 celebrity hoofers announced Tuesday, says he hopes the show will take people’s minds off the Brazil controversy, which flared when local police challenged his report of being robbed on Aug. 14. The swimmer has amended details of his original account, such as having a gun put to his forehead.
“It’s just an amazing show, and hopefully when I’m on it, people will watch and enjoy the show and talk about the show,” he tells USA TODAY. “Hopefully, it changes everyone’s mindset and just focuses on something different.”
Lochte says the ABC competi- tion has been talking to him for years about participating, and now, with the Olympics completed, he finally has time to be part of Season 23 (Sept. 19, 8 p.m. ET/PT).
He admits he made mistakes in Rio but says he hasn’t had second thoughts about returning to the public eye so quickly.
Asked about media coverage of the episode and its fallout, he says: “I think they definitely blew this thing way bigger than what it was supposed to be. That stinks for me, but you just have to kind of really roll with the punches. ... I made a mistake — I’m only human and I learned from it.”
Lochte, who has lost endorsement deals since Rio, says he didn’t see Jimmy Fallon’s mocking impersonation of him at the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday. “I heard about it. It is what it is. It’s Jimmy Fallon. I’m sure it was in all good fun.”
Dancing didn’t back away from Lochte. The show began talks with him before Rio and finalized the deal after the headlines.
“He’s apologized for it. ... Hopefully, this opportunity will be something that shows Ryan in a good light,” executive producer Rob Wade says. “I think at the end of the day, he really wants to dance. He wants to have the op- portunity to try something he’s never tried before and do well.”
Lochte, who won a relay gold medal in Rio and trails only Michael Phelps in medal count for a male Olympic swimmer, says things haven’t been easy.
“I’m trying to stay positive as much as possible. I have great friends, a great family and a great team. ... I owe it to them to keep moving forward instead of, like, going and crawling into a cave.” (A Lochte representative referred a question about whether he would return to Brazil to face a charge of filing a false report to the swimmer’s lawyer.)
Lochte, who is paired with pro Cheryl Burke, says he’s new to ballroom dancing but understands the importance of training.
“Right now, I’m kind of learning the basic steps. I’m getting better each day, but that’s not really saying much because when I first started, I couldn’t even walk straight, basically. I’m not going into this competition trying to lose. The end goal is making it to the finals and winning.”