Ryan Lochte [Athlete]

[TonjaLasagna]

My goodness this 24 yr old boy is HOT!!
Heard he's moving back to Florida after the Olympics....sigh.
I like that he has a Gator tattoo, but doesn't belong to a Frat.
Sooooo happy he won the gold in the Men's 200 Backstroke
Enjoy

[ekee]

hot body, but looks like a massive tool. esp with his grill. i cant get over those pictures. wtf.

[qwerty]

I'm not feeling it.

[RevellingInSane]

He has a sexy lower lip. The rest...meh.

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

hot body, but looks like a massive tool. esp with his grill. i cant get over those pictures. wtf.

I was gonna say the same, mentioning the blinged-out skull necklace, but does he really have a grill? That's a deal breaker

[Chalet]

Overwhelming urge to cut his hair. It's too blobby.

[ekee]

I was gonna say the same, mentioning the blinged-out skull necklace, but does he really have a grill? That's a deal breaker

oh yes my dear.

[TonjaLasagna]

Found this interview with Ryan Lochte floating 'round the net.
Enjoy


The Joker to Phelps's Ace
Gold medalist Ryan Lochte talks to John Gonzalez about Phelps's fame, scooter stunts and his new grill.

By John Gonzalez

JG: You seem to have a great relationship with your biggest rival, Michael Phelps.
RL: We've become really good friends. The amount of stuff that he has to deal with - I honestly don't know how he does it. I give him so much respect for that.
JG: A few years ago you had to help Michael Phelps escape one rabid fan. What happened there?
RL: This was in Montreal during the 2005 Worlds. We'd just gotten off the train and on our way to finals, and the guy had his camera and this whole bag of shit that he wanted Phelps to sign. So he was following us, and the guy kept grabbing Phelps and tugging at his arm. I was like, "Leave him alone." But the guy wouldn't stop. I mean, he was 45...a little shorter than me, but thick - you know, stocky. So I turned to the guy and I was like, "Back the fuck off. I understand you want to talk to Phelps. He's a great swimmer. He's amazing." But we were on our way to finals, you know?
JG: Phelps is a big star. Would you want that kind of celebrity?
RL: I just don't like the fame. Well, the fame is okay, but the commotion. I mean, it's cool that I'm getting my name out there and that I'm getting in magazines. But I like being me. All that fame, I could care less. If my life were like Phelps's, I'd probably take out my paintball gun and start shooting people. That must be hard. I'm glad that doesn't happen to me.
JG: Glad you haven't shot anyone with your paintball gun. From what I hear, you do some crazy stuff like that from time to time, though, right?
RL: I'm just a dumbass. There have been a couple of times when I really messed myself up. I was riding on my scooter to practice right before Worlds in Melbourne last year two weeks before I left, and was weaving in and out of the lane at 35 or 40 miles per hour - side to side, real sharp, just messing around. I lost control of it, and I went flying into the bushes. I rolled out into the middle of the street. There was someone mowing their lawn, and they ran over to see if I was all right. I was like, "Uhhh, yeah." I got on my scooter and went home. I didn't have a helmet on, my whole leg was blood, I couldn't walk on my ankle, and my shoulder hurt. I was like, "Oh my god, this is not good." So I went to the doctor immediately, and he said I fractured my ankle. I had scrapes and bruises all over my side. They said I might need a cast. I said, "No, I need to leave in two weeks for Worlds." So they let me go.
JG: Has your competition schedule or your Olympic goals made you more cautious?
RL: No. I'm not going to stop doing that stuff. All of that stuff makes me who I am. In my head, I feel like I'm going to do whatever I do. If I get hurt, then it's someone saying that it's not meant to be - you're not meant to go to the Olympics. Life is too short to just waste. I try to live my life to the fullest. Sometimes I live it up too much.
JG: What will it take to win at the Games?
RL: What's important is how you swim the race. If you have extra kicks off the wall it can hurt you. Extra kicks can cost you the race. That's how close it is with the top guys. You have to be technically perfect.
JG: If you do win, how will you celebrate? Any chance we'll see the rapper's grill that you wore on the podium at last year's World Championships in Melbourne?
RL: I'm working on another one - a new one. The grill I'm getting for the Olympics has an American flag on it made out of diamonds.


Men's Journal:

[TonjaLasagna]

Why I'm rooting for Ryan Lochte

By Mary Buckheit
My mom called from back home for a weekly catch-up.
"Are you doing anything on Michael Phelps, Mary?" she asked before racing into her unabashed endorsement of Captain America. "Oh, he just seems like such a good guy. It's so nice to see him doing so well. I hope he wins them all."
"Yeah, he deserves it," I said, "but I actually like the other guy."

[+] Enlarge

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
Ryan Lochte, left, and Michael Phelps are the best IM swimmers in the world, but Lochte's fan base will be small when Phelps goes for gold medal No. 6.

What followed confirmed two things -- (1) you're never too old to be scolded by your mother, and (2) I might be the only person in America rooting for Ryan Lochte in Thursday night's 200 individual medley.
Notice that I didn't say rooting against Michael Phelps. The guy certainly is praiseworthy, his focus is extraordinary, his success in the pool is incomparable. But he's not unrivaled. And his rival -- Pat Forde called the 200 IM Phelps' second-toughest of his eight races -- just happens to be more my speed.
I met Lochte last month in Palo Alto, Calif., where the fine facilities of Stanford University served as the training camp compound for the USA's Beijing-bound swimmers.
After a morning pool practice open to throngs of fans who showed up for an in-person peek at their future Wheaties box heroes, the team made its way to a media-day bonanza. There were a bunch of us and a bunch of them, and everybody was punctually and politely shuffled from one table to the next, sort of like in those six-minute speed-dating cycles.
Phelps was there, polite as ever, a real gentleman on our special speed date. I picked him up, and he told me about flip turns and underwater kick improvements. He told me how strange it is to be sitting at your computer and hearing your own voice coming from the TV. He talked about working hard and swimming fast and setting personal goals and eating power bars. Basically, the interview was a lot like those divers who hit the water from really high up yet don't even make a splash.




But hey, he's not an entertainer, he's an athlete. Most Olympic athletes are dry and directed, and Phelps is the gold standard of such discipline. Again, there's nothing not to like about the world's greatest swimmer.
It's just that there's something I loved Ryan Lochte.
The 24-year-old University of Florida grad was pulled into another obligation during the swim team's media car wash that day, but we were told he'd be back to speak to reporters as soon as he was free. After some time, Lochte shuffled in. Only four of us were still standing. Stealthy, right? The guy many consider the second-best in the biz, the Michael Phelps friend, foe and potential foiler had to talk to only four reporters.
"I like staying under the radar and just being myself," Lochte said.
And that's just what he did. Relaxed in a folding chair, from beneath a drape of wet curls, he talked softly and unhurriedly. He told us about himself, "a clown who surfs Daytona Beach." He fielded questions about his imaginative drawings and skateboard injuries.
I told him I liked his brown Wallabees that he somehow pulls off with red mesh Speedo shorts and a T-shirt. "Yeah, old-school Clarks, they're sweet, right?" he concurred.
In talking about swimming, Lochte made one thing very clear.
"I hate to lose," he said, his eyes taking a timeout from roaming around the room to lock in on the reporters. "I just hate to lose."
He might see the Olympic Games as what he called "just another swim meet." But he is there, as always, to win. That's what drives the easygoing guy to success. And that's what's so cool about him. His days are punctuated by pickup basketball games and ridiculous injuries sustained from hide-and-seek mishaps or scuffles out on the town with his boys.
When asked what he would be sure to pack in his China carry-on bag, he said "Fun Dip."
So, essentially, all that separates this shaggy kid from Michael Freaking Phelps is one-hundredth of a second and a Lik-a-Stix. How cool is that?
Every team has a few athletes who do all the right things; those who are all business, early to bed, early to rise, first in the gym, last to leave. Those athletes are respected and rightfully rewarded for their meticulous efforts, but I'm always intrigued by the free-spirited mavericks. The athletes who somehow manage to maintain an artsy approach to a world that's pretty cut-and-dried. The ones who are just that good.
"Some coaches say I'm a different breed," Lochte said. "If I honestly just went to practice, went home, slept, ate, watched TV and then went to practice again, I'd shoot myself. I'd go insane. That's definitely not me."
He's definitely not the Olympic norm, not with his candid moxie and modest bluster. He's just Ryan Lochte. He's the kid in your class who dozes off during lectures, then aces the test.
By now, you've seen the Michael Phelps PowerBar commercial. The one in which he explains that fear is good. Well, that's the point I'm trying to make. The guy who reps petrified protein bars should fear the kid who can't live without Fun Dip.


Mary Buckheit writes for Page 2. She can be reached at marybuckheit@hotmail.com.

ESPN Page 2 - Buckheit: Rooting for Ryan

[ekee]

HAHA.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekYKxVwKwXo[/YOUTUBE]
he's like. you know, like, such a great speaker.

[Brando]

He`s cute, nice lips. The grill has to go and the skull necklace.

He kind of favors Daniel Craig in the above picture.

[LaFolie]

Real fug to me

[lisalucy69]

The first set of pictures posted and the one with the grill don't do much for me. Too posed and cheesey. The picture posted later where he's with Michael is the one he looks the best in IMO. From the interview, he seems like a pretty cool guy.

[Driftwoodbaby]

this guy seems so nice...
he's super cute- grills are a little , um, weird, but whatever...

I really miss the olympics. I hope they start televising swimming now

[bradbl_681]

Oh definitely, let's have more of Ryan!