On His Way Out The Door, Ryan Lochte Admits He Pees In The Pool [London Olympics]

This has been reported all over the place, usually without much additional comment, and Lochte has yet to clarify that he was joking, so I guess it's a real thing. From TVGuide.com:

According to Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, it's common practice for athletes to pee in the Olympic pool.

"Of course," Lochte responded Friday during an interview on Ryan Seacrest's morning show, when Seacrest asked him if swimmers really do use the pool as a toilet.

"I think there's just something about getting into chlorine water that you just automatically go," the gold medalist added. "[I didn't] during the races, but I sure did in warm-up."

Maybe it's because the first mention of it came out on Friday afternoon, but for whatever reason, the reaction was mostly along the lines of, "yawn, the second most famous swimmer on earth pisses in the pool while he warms up, he says everyone does, they're all swimming in their own piss, whatever, moving on." Jezebel found it "unsurprising," these guys said the habit represented a "similarity to most people," The Daily Mail used it as a pivot to get back to that one-night stand thing, and Sports Illustrated made half a joke about endorsements. Examiner.com said, "If there was any point to be made, it is this is why celebrity hosts do not belong at the London Olympics."

Au contraire, Examiner.com. There are a lot of other points to be made. Such as:

• What?
• He just pees right in the pool?
• Other swimmers also just pee right in the pool?
• What the fuck?

OK, so I guess there aren't "a lot" of other points to be made. Still, it seems like a good time to note that the London Olympics, once touted as Ryan Lochte's coming out party—his appeal is "through the roof" and he's "the rock star of the swimming community," remember?—resulted in one individual gold medal and a bunch of articles suggesting that he might be sort of an annoying moron. His Olympics is over (the US Men's team still has races to swim, but none involve Lochte) and on the way out, he admitted that he was peeing in the pool the whole time.

With only a couple more events, the oldest male swimmer to win gold in London was Lochte himself, at age 27. When the 2016 Olympics in Rio roll around, Lochte will be 31. Um...jeah?

Image via Shutterstock

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Call Him "Baby Shoes," ’Cuz Ryan Lochte Just Got Bronzed [Swimming]

Aug 2, 2012 3:20 PM  

First he gets outraced by a 16-year-old Chinese girl who's not even in the pool with him. Now here's Ryan Lochte, in the middle lane above, getting beaten to the wall in the 200-meter breastbackstroke by teammate Tyler Clary (in an Olympic record 1:53.41) and Japan's Ryosuke Irie, both of whom passed him down the stretch. Michael Phelps can keep his stupid boring monochromatic gold collection from Beijing. Who does he think he is, Mr. T.? Ryan Lochte is diversifying his medal portfolio.

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16-Year-Old Chinese Girl Swam A Faster 50 Meters Than Ryan Lochte [Swimming]

Ye Shiwen didn't just break the world record for the 400m individual medley. She smashed it, by more than a second. She beat silver medalist Elizabeth Beisel by nearly three seconds. She shaved more than seven seconds off her own mark at the World Championships last summer.

And perhaps most stunningly, the final 50 meters of Ye's swim were faster than Ryan Lochte's final 50m, when he took gold in the men's version on Saturday.

Ye's fellow swimmers sounded incredulous enough, and BBC presenters went even further. But it was U.S. coach and executive John Leonard who fired the first doping shots across the Chinese's bow.

"We want to be very careful about calling it doping," Leonard said. "The one thing I will say is that history in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I will put quotation marks around this, 'unbelievable', history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved. That last 100m was reminiscent of some old East German swimmers, for people who have been around a while. It was reminiscent of 400m individual medley by a young Irish woman in Atlanta."

That young Irish woman was Michelle Smith, who in 1996 had Ireland's second-best ever medal haul, and similarly dominated in the 400 IM, just before her career was done in by a series of failed drug tests.

Leonard added that Ye

"looks like Superwoman. Any time someone has looked like Superwoman in the history of our sport they have later been found guilty of doping."

Leonard points out that the Chinese swim program has something of a history of doping, dating back to the 1994 World Championships and running through the 2008 Junior Championships. Ye was straight-up asked about the cleanliness of her urine, and replied that "the Chinese team keep very firmly to the anti-doping policies, so there is absolutely no problem."

This is a thorny issue, and I'm not sure there's a respectful way to "I'm not saying she doped, but there's no way she should have been able to perform like that without doping" without it sounding like sour grapes. Especially if you're an American, since an American swimmer came in second. BUT: that was one really, really fast goddamn swim.

H/T Clever Hans

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Phelps And Lochte No Match For Mighty French, Settle For Silver in Freestyle Relay [London Olympics]

Jul 29, 2012 4:50 PM  

Welp, at least Ryan Lochte has some more silver hardware to add to his grill. The French came back to win the Men's 4x100m relay after the Americans had been leading throughout. France finished strong with a time of 3:9:93 and the U.S. foursome settled for second place with a time of 3:10:38.

The Americans led all the way until Yannick Agnel pulled ahead of Ryan Lochte in the final lap.

Sometimes you're a winner thanks to Jason Lezak, and sometimes you actually lose to the French.

[AP]

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Don't Wait Until Tonight To Watch Michael Phelps And Ryan Lochte Swim The 400 IM [London Olympics]

Jul 28, 2012 2:29 PM  

NBC is tape-delaying the Men's 400 IM, so if you don't feel like sitting around like a sucker until NBC's prime time coverage, watch it online here at 2:30 p.m.

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Image via Getty

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Ryan Lochte Wins Gold In Men's 400 Individual Medley, Michael Phelps Not On The Podium [London Olympics]

Jul 28, 2012 2:49 PM  

Ryan Lochte is your winner in this evening's afternoon's 400m individual medley. Michael Phelps, the lazy bastard, did not medal in the event.

Ryan Lochte destroyed the field, winning the gold medal in the 400 IM on Saturday by more than three seconds in a time of 4:05.18 at at the Olympic Aquatics Centre. Two-time Olympic champ Michael Phelps finished fourth in 4:09.28.

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[Cleveland Plain Dealer]

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