Its been said that a great part of some of the Athletes pre game warm up is hip hop music to get them hype before their event. Well Olympic Gold Meadlist Ryan Lochete took it one step further. In the words of Paul Wall “I got my mouth looking something like a disco ball I got da diamonds and da ice all hand set” And thats what he did what better way to rep your country than with a Grill…
The American Olympic swimmer, who won a gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley in London on Saturday, stepped up to the medal podium with a new piece of mouthware, a Stars and Stripes “grill” across his top front teeth.
According to a report by ESPN, however, an IOC official told Lochte he had to take the bling off or he wouldn’t be able to receive his gold medal.
“Can you believe that,” he said to a news reporter.
It wasn’t the first time Lochte has worn some glitz in his grill after a big win.
He wore a similar grill in Shangai last year when he took the medal podium in the FINA World Championships. That grill was simply diamond-studded, not decked out with the colors of the American flag.
In a Speedo video posted on YouTube in June, Lochte explains the look:
“For those who don’t know what a grill is, it’s basically a retainer filled with diamonds. … I wear it when I go on the podium. It’s just a unique way of showing my personality out to everyone.”
Lochte doesn’t keep his flair limited to his teeth. At the Olympic qualifying meet a few weeks ago, Lochte tweeted out an image of some special shoes he wore. One sneaker had stars and one had stripes and both kicks had wings hanging off the back. Later that week, he rocked some bright green kicks on the medal podium.
So if Lochte keeps piling up the medals in London, who knows what we’ll see next?
