It’s only been about a couple months since the Rio scandal that Ryan Lochte was involved in, and it appears that Lochte’s Olympic teammates have distanced themselves from him, including Michael Phelps. Lochte said he’s reached out to Phelps and hasn’t received any return phone calls.
The two reportedly exchanged text messages, but Lochte never got a phone call.
“I think he texted me back saying, ‘Yeah, sure. I’m here to help,’ or something like that,’’ Lochte said. “But he didn’t call me. I was like, ‘Hey, can you please call me? Let me know, I need help.’ That never really happened.”
Lochte added: “He’s busy. He has his own life. He has a kid. So it’s gotta be hard, you know?”
Lochte definitely seems hurt. It’s not only Phelps that doesn’t talk to Lochte either. Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen have all separated from him as well. The three were with Lochte the night of the incident, and got the worst of it because they were still in Brazil. They were the ones who dealt with Brazilian authorities, while Lochte was already back in the Unites States.
Lochte swears that he was always supposed to leave Brazil when he did and tried to explain to his teammates that he didn’t just ditch them. However, it was to no avail. Lochte says they either don’t respond or scarcely respond.
It must be a hard pill for Lochte to swallow, but hopefully the fallen swimmer has learned a valuable lesson.