ABC "Dancing With the Stars" Mirrorball
A “Dancing With the Stars” Olympian is putting several Olympic medals on the auction block — find out why 12-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte is selling half of his medals even though he said he “cherish[es]” all of them.
Lochte is Selling His Medals for Charity
NBC Sports reports that the Olympic swimmer is selling six of his 12 Olympic medals to benefit the Jorge Nation Foundation, which is a “non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, that is dedicated to raising funds to send children and their families on a once-in-a-lifetime all inclusive Dream Trip,” according to the foundation’s website.
Lochte told NBC Sports that he “cherish[es]” his medals, but he feels “amazing” about being able to help out these children battling terrible diseases and conditions.
“I don’t want people to think I didn’t care about the medals. I cherish them, but they’re just sitting in my closet collecting dust,” said Lochte, adding, “I feel amazing about [the auction] just because I’m going to be helping kids out.”
Lochte earned 12 medals over the span of four Olympic games — Athens, Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro. He is tied for the second-most decorated swimmer in U.S. history behind Michael Phelps’ 28 medals. Lochte earned six golds, three silvers and two bronze medals and the silver and bronze medals are the ones that are currently up for auction through July 21 at RR Auctions. As of this writing, his items have already wracked up over $80,000 in bids.
He told NBC Sports that he eventually plans on auctioning all but one of his gold medals to also benefit charity; he wants to keep the first individual Olympic gold medal that he won, which was for the 200m backstroke at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
Lochte Competed on Season 23 of ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Loche became just the second Olympic swimmer to compete on “Dancing With the Stars” when he was part of season 23 in 2016, after Natalie Coughlin danced in season nine. Olympians have a strong history on the show, but typically the strongest showings are from gymnasts and figure skaters; Lochte and his partner Cheryl Burke finished in seventh place. He was one of two Olympians on that season, with gymnast Laurie Hernandez winning the Mirrorball Trophy alongside her pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy.
His season was a little controversial because it was coming off of his Rio de Janeiro scandal in which Lochte and three of his teammates said they were robbed at gunpoint in the middle of the night. They later recanted the story and admitted they were the ones who damaged a gas station. They were charged with providing a false claim of a robbery, though those charges were later dropped because they “did not rise to the level of filing a false crime report,” according to the BBC.
Lochte’s appearance on “Dancing With the Stars” was spotted by protestors due to his troubles in Rio; two were actually arrested in the first week trying to rush the stage after Lochte and Burke performed a foxtrot, and several other audience members who were shouting things were escorted out of the studio, according to ABC News.
After the incident, Lochte posted a statement to Instagram in which he wrote, “I want to thank my family, girlfriend, friends and fans for being so supportive of me after the incident on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Monday night. When I was asked to do the show, the one thing that I kept hearing was that it was like joining a big family. After Monday’s incident, I now know what that means. I have gotten so much love from everyone on the show, including my partner Cheryl, my fellow competitors, the producers, the security team and its fans. I appreciate the opportunity to be part of the show, and more than ever, I am dedicated to my new family and to working hard to do my best.”
In a June 2022 interview with former “Dancing With the Stars” host Tom Bergeron on the “Game Changers” podcast, Lochte’s name actually came up when Bergeron was talking about controversial casting. He said that he didn’t have a huge problem with Lochte doing a bit of “image rehabilitation” on the show; he thinks the larger problem is where people are cast for the sake of being controversial, like political figures.
“We had Ryan Lochte on, OK, here’s a guy who he kind of putzed it up and it’s a little bit of image rehabilitation and I get that,” said the former host. “But I don’t know, there were occasions where I felt [the producers] overcompensated in their desire to be controversial and I don’t think that did the show ultimately any favors.”
“Dancing With the Stars” returns for its 31st season this fall on Disney Plus.
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