Ryan Lochte tears MCL trying to catch excited teen girl fan
In this week’s edition of “What Would Ryan Lochte Do?” the answer is: respond to an excited teenage girl fan running and jumping at him by attempting to catch her, with the end result being both Lochte and the fan tumbling to the ground and the Olympic gold medalist tearing his MCL and spraining his ACL in the process. To Ryan’s credit, the fan was uninjured in the incident. Jeah!
“As a result of a freak injury caused by an unexpected fan encounter Ryan has suffered a torn MCL and an ACL sprain and will be taking a break from training and competition,” said Ryan Lochte’s rep Janice Lee in a statement. “His medical team expects him to make a full and speedy recovery and Ryan thanks everyone for their well wishes.”
Lochte was visiting his old stomping ground swimming water of Gainesville, Florida when the collision occurred. (Lochte now trains in Charlotte, North Carolina.) According to ESPN, Lochte is next scheduled to represent the U.S. in the Duel in the Pool meet in Scotland on Dec. 20-21.
And speaking of ESPN and Ryan Lochte, his injury was a topic of conversation on the Mike & Mike show this morning, during which the hosts “debate which injury is more embarrassing, Ryan Lochte being injured by an excited fan or Brandt Snedeker getting hurt getting off of a Segway:”
I’d like to take this opportunity to create a word that I don’t believe exists yet to described an occasion where a celebrity gets hurt while interacting with a supporter: fanjury. (And I suppose I should also claim the verb forms fanjure, fanjured and fanjuring.)
