“I just want to be done,” he said on the drive to a nearby Hilton, steering his white Range Rover with his knee, sitting far down in the bucket seats, blasting Lil Wayne. He was to spend hours shooting a commercial for a cellphone company, posing shirtless on a locker room set. Tomorrow would bring a double session of exhausting practices to rack up the 70,000 meters he swims weekly in preparation for the London Olympics next month. And then more shoots, more training, a grueling schedule of never-ending shirtlessness.“If I do really good at the Olympics,” he said, “it’s going to be 10 times worse. Balancing all that stuff out” with swimming, he added, “just drains me.”It was a momentary lapse in Mr. Lochte’s otherwise laid-back demeanor, so slacker-ready that he rides his scooter when walking his dog. “I’m one of the laziest people,” he’d said, grinning, “outside of, like, working out.
”Right, that. Even if his muscle-bound 6-foot-2 frame and sculptured abs — justifiably famous in their own right — weren’t evidence of his work ethic, the last few months have been a test of Mr. Lochte’s supposed laziness. In addition to training for the Games, where he plans to face off with the sport’s reigning champ, Michael Phelps, he has been on a breakneck tour of national appearances and promotions, making him this Olympics’ all-American swim hunk even before the United States team has been announced.
Sounds like he's cashing in. Good for him. Elite swimmers have a very limited window of opportunity to cash in on their fame, and he's taking full advantage of it.
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/0 ... HTE-2.html: a short slideshow, including photo-shoot at the O-Dome.