Ryan Lochte's debut on Dancing With the Stars Friday night didn't go quite as far towards rehabilitating his severely damaged image as he may have hoped. Just after his performance with partner Cheryl Burke finished and the judges were deliberating, two men rushed the stage, with four women yelling their support from the audience. All six were wearing shirts with Lochte's name crossed out, according to Entertainment Weekly. The show, which is broadcast live, was thrown into chaos and quickly cut to commercial break, as you can see above.
Some reports had the men throwing something at Lochte before being tackled.
You can see one of the men being tackled in the video below.
Lochte was understandably upset by the whole thing.
"So many feelings are going through my head right now," he said to host Tom Bergeron. The swimmer added that he was "a little hurt."
"I came out here and I wanted to do something I was completely uncomfortable with, and I did," he said. He was apparently "close to tears" after the incident, and he and Burke were reportedly too shaken up to talk to the press after the show.
"Everyone makes mistakes and I really hope America gets to see the guy we are all getting to know, which is a really, really nice guy,” said DWTS contestant Jana Kramer of Lochte.
