Ryan Lochte took ‘Dancing with the Stars’ gig long before Rio incident

For those of you wondering whether or not Ryan Lochte on “Dancing with the Stars” is a direct result of him having that infamous incident in Rio during the Olympics, it turns out that the two may not be as related as we and so many other people initially thought.

As a matter of fact, the swimmer tells Ellen DeGeneres on her daytime show (see the video below) that he opted to do the show about a month before the incident, though he did briefly consider dropping out and going into hiding before his friends and family told him to join the series and try to compete. As of right now, we’d say that he is in a particularly interesting spot on the show, given that there are going to be a wide array of people who will not support him solely because of his history and what happened with the games. However, at the same time he’s in great shape and could be predisposed to doing well on the show.

Lochte also opened up briefly about the recent lengthy suspension he received as a result of the incident:

“I’ve been swimming my entire life and I’ve never taken a break … For someone telling me that I can’t do something that I’ve been doing my entire life, I mean, it’s heartbreaking and it stinks … I definitely know there’s so much more I want to accomplish in the sport of swimming. So I’m going to be training, and when I do come back I’m definitely going to be a better swimmer, a better person.”

We’re ultimately going to have a rather good chance to see just how Lochte fares when the new season of the show premieres on Monday night. For now, head over here to see our recent spotlights and a variety of other scoop on the show! Also, sign up over here to get some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)