'Dancing With the Stars' Season 23: Ryan Lochte Already Struggling In Rehearsals? [VIDEO]
Ryan Lochte is really hoping for a second chance by being involved with Dancing With the Stars, even if he's already struggling in rehearsals.
Lochte is set on turning public opinion around with his upcoming stint on Dancing With the Stars. The Olympic swimmer was banned by USOC and U.S. Swimming for 10 months after he vandalized a gas station in Rio, a scandal that has caused the public to mostly turn on him over the past few weeks.
The swimmer is now hoping to get everyone to move on from the incident.
"I think that's one of the things that's really going to help, me being on this show," he told Entertainment Tonight this week. "There's so many other important things, issues going on in the world, and you know, hopefully this helps, and helps put people in a different mind perspective of me, and you know, just move on, move forward."
While his involvement in the fall season certainly seems to have come at the right time to rehab his image, Lochte's decision to do Dancing With the Stars was actually made before the Rio Olympics, according to the swimmer himself.
"Well, they've been asking for me to be on the [show] for, like, five years now, and with training and the Olympics, I couldn't take that time off," he said. "But now that I'm taking a mental break and everything, I can do the show. So, I decided I was going to do it before the Olympics, and then we finally signed the papers and everything after."
As for his actual talent in the ballroom, Locate admitted that he's his own toughest critic and noted that his swimming excellence hasn't quite translated.
"I was hoping that being an athlete, and very athletic, that it would carry onto the dance floor," he said. "But I honestly haven't seen it. I'm still hoping."
Dancing With the Stars season 23 premieres Monday, Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
