Anna Delvey may very well be the most controversial contestant in Dancing With The Stars‘ history, but Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte once had protestors storming the stage to remind everyone he was a “liar.”
The athlete was famously involved in a debacle during the 2016 Rio Olympics that nearly landed him in jail. A few months later, he was invited to be a part of the 23rd season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, where he made it all the way to week eight alongside partner Cheryl Burke.
His first time on the dancefloor dancing the Foxtrot to Bobby Darin’s “Call Me Irresponsible” (an intentional choice of song, we’re sure) was disrupted by multiple protestors, two of which approached the pair as they prepared to hear their scores from the judges.
A brief history of “Lochtegate”
You know it’s bad when they give your scandal the -gate suffix. It all started in the early morning hours of Aug. 15, 2016, when, after a night of partying, a group of inebriated American Olympians including Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz, and Jack Conger visited a gas station in the Brazillian city, vandalized the bathrooms and other property and tried to escape, before the security guard approached, forced them out of their taxi at gunpoint, and ordered they pay for the damages.
Before CCTV footage of the incident was released to international media, however, Lochte claimed the foursome had been robbed at gunpoint by armed men with police badges. Given that the Rio Olympics had been clouded in some controversy related to infrastructures, organization, and general safety and health concerns, a decorated athlete from arguably the most influential nation in the world falling victim to a crime of that kind was a big deal.
Lochte left Brazil the next day after speaking to the police only once to report the false crime. His teammates were further questioned, with Conger and Bentz opting to stick to the facts, and Feigen releasing a statement and public apology. The 12-time Olympic medalist was eventually charged with making a false statement, but the court later dismissed the case. The U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming suspended Lochte for 10 months.
The men who stormed the DWTS stage
During the taping for Night 1 of Dancing With The Stars season 23, on September 12, 2016, 59-year-old Sam Sotoodeh and 25-year-old Barzeen Soroudi approached Lochte, Burke, the judges, and host Tom Bergeron wearing anti-Lochte shirts and yelling “Liar.” They were immediately tackled by police and handcuffed, leading to their arrest and subsequent trespassing charges.
Speaking to the media, the two men, who had been joined by multiple other protestors in the stands wearing similar t-shirts, said they wanted to take a stand against Lochte’s actions which “embarrassed Americans on the world stage,” per Soroudi. “Lochte is a coward, a liar, and, under Brazillian law, a criminal,” the older gentleman told ABC News, adding, in a different clip from ExtraTV, that the group had tried to contact Dancing With Stars via e-mail, letter, and phone calls, to no avail. “We’re protesting that such a liar, such a bad person, is being made a star in the United States,” he stated. If they were this upset over Locthe, we’re now wondering what they make of Anna Delvey’s casting.
Lochte’s career was never the same after the Rio incident, and he never made it back to the Olympic stage, despite trying one last time in 2020. In 2018 he was suspended again, this time for 14 months, for receiving a prohibited intravenous infusion, and in 2023, he was tragically involved in a serious car crash that left him in a wheelchair for months after fracturing his femur. The former swimmer has made a near-full recovery, and continues to practice his passion by teaching kids across the country to swim via his Lifetime Swim Clinic.