--- title: Ryan Lochte, Olympic Swimmer, Is All Grown Up — and Hairless description: Ryan Lochte took the 2012 London Olympics by storm. Now 31, the heartthrob swimming sensation with 11 medals is coming back for round two. canonical: https://time.com/4384279/ryan-lochte-is-all-grown-up-and-hairless/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-27T19:16:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:33:49.086Z og:title: Ryan Lochte, Olympic Swimmer, Is All Grown Up — and Hairless og:description: Ryan Lochte, heartthrob swimming sensation, is now 31. But he's still on Tinder. og:url: https://time.com/4384279/ryan-lochte-is-all-grown-up-and-hairless/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta44679d94789d383/69889992e20a872793a9162a/ryan-lochte-olympics-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4928 og:image:height: 2772 og:image:alt: USOC Portraits for Rio2016 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ryan Lochte, Olympic Swimmer, Is All Grown Up — and Hairless twitter:description: Ryan Lochte, heartthrob swimming sensation, is now 31. But he's still on Tinder. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta44679d94789d383/69889992e20a872793a9162a/ryan-lochte-olympics-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ryan Lochte Is All Grown Up — and Hairless > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jun 27, 2016 7:16 PM UTC  LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 17: Swimmer Ryan Lochte poses for a portrait at the USOC Rio Olympics Shoot at Quixote Studios on November 17, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 17: Swimmer Ryan Lochte poses for a portrait at the USOC Rio Olympics Shoot at Quixote Studios on November 17, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) Harry How—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jun 27, 2016 7:16 PM UTC Gold-medal swimmer Ryan Lochte took the 2012 London Olympics by storm, bursting onto the scene to break records and rack up [11 medals](http://time.com/4349680/ryan-lochte-olympics-pizza-chicken-wings/). Now 31, the heartthrob swimming sensation is coming back for round two. But things are a little bit different this time. For starters, he just [failed to qualify](http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/06/26/ryan-lochte-400-individual-medley/86416312/) for the Olympic 400 meter individual medley — an event in which he took home gold last time around. And, while in 2012 he was something of a social media sensation thanks to his chiseled jawline, toned physique, and [trademarked catchphrase](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/08/ryan-lochte-to-trademark-jeah-catchphrase/) “Jeah!”, the athlete now seems to have put to rest some of his rowdier attributes, “Jeah” included. In a new [interview with GQ](http://www.gq.com/story/ryan-lochte-rio-interview), Lochte says we can expect a “more mature” star in Rio this summer. “Now that I’m more mature, it’s time to focus more on the swimming part and less on the outside part,” he said. After switching coaches, moving cities, and suffering from a dip in his performance, Lochte says he’s finally back on track to repeat his 2012 successes, now stronger and leaner than before. He’s also more hairless than before, having undergone laser hair removal so that he’s “sleek as a board” when he hits the water, gaining that hydrodynamic advantage. Another plus? “I think ladies love swimmers _because_ we’re hairless,” Lochte says. Speaking of ladies, he recently joined Tinder, which we imagine will be a boon once all the athletes hit Rio’s Olympic Village. Hundreds of incredibly fit young people packed together on vacation? Sounds like spring break on steroids. But Lochte was quick to note that the Village isn’t necessarily the Dionysian free-for-all that we might imagine it to be — for the U.S. team, at least. “You can’t have girls in a guy’s room or guys in a girl’s room,” he explained of the strict U.S. code of conduct. “No alcohol. You’re there to compete, you’re not there to party. So once swimming is all said and done if you want to do those kind of things, you have to leave the Village and go on your own.” Watch out, Rio. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4384279/ryan-lochte-is-all-grown-up-and-hairless/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4384279/ryan-lochte-is-all-grown-up-and-hairless/"},"headline":"Ryan Lochte Is All Grown Up — and Hairless","datePublished":"2016-06-27T19:16:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:33:49.086Z","description":"Don't underestimate the guy who coined the term \"Jeah!\"","url":"https://time.com/4384279/ryan-lochte-is-all-grown-up-and-hairless/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Sports topic","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta44679d94789d383/69889992e20a872793a9162a/ryan-lochte-olympics-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta44679d94789d383/69889992e20a872793a9162a/ryan-lochte-olympics-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"USOC Portraits for Rio2016","caption":"USOC Portraits for Rio2016","creditText":"Harry How—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4384279/ryan-lochte-is-all-grown-up-and-hairless/","name":"Ryan Lochte Is All Grown Up — and Hairless"}}]}] ```