startraksphoto.com; Jason Merritt, Adam Pretty/Getty ImagesNot since George Foreman and his drip pan has one sportsman's grill gotten quite so much attention (er, for good or bad). Well, Ryan Lochte did say he was all about breaking records in London, right? What better way to start than with the column inches raked up by the oh-so-patriotic mouthpiece shown off by Team USA's gold medalist swimmer.
The 27-year-old waterlogged phenom wasted no time in swapping Olympic rings for Olympic bling this week, having trotted out his star-spangled grill shortly after scoring his first individual medal over the weekend. But he's hardly the first star to rock the diamond dentures.
Long a mainstay of his podium celebrations, Lochte made good on his pre-game promise to pull out the bauble-encrusted American flag grill shortly after his inaugural win.
Not that we can blame him for being so quick to throw on the accessory—the grill was custom-designed for the medley man by rapper (and apparently jeweler) Paul Wall to the tune of $25,000. That's approximately $1,000 per tooth, for those playing along at home.
Which, judging by the attention garnered by Lochte, is everyone, we're guessing. Olympics officials, on the other hand, weren't in such a playful mood.
ESPN reporter Wayne Drehs tweeted after the win, "Lochte told me he tried to wear his grill on the podium only to have an Olympics official tell him if he did so he wouldn't get his gold."
Ah, well. Can't please everyone. After all, Lochte's not the first star to show off a blinged-out bite. Unsurprisingly, Lochte's O.G. inspiration may just be rapper Lil Wayne, whose music the Olympian has long used as pre-meet motivation. And then there's the little fact that he named his dog after the artist.
Of course, though he may be the trailblazer, and Lochte the de facto torchbearer, someone's got to make up the difference, right? And that someone was, rather memorably, the tiger-blooded, Adonis-DNA'd Charlie Sheen.
So you tell us, whose grill made the most lasting mark?