Police say two men are under arrest on suspicion of criminal trespassing for rushing the stage during swimmer Ryan Lochte’s debut performance on “Dancing with the Stars”.
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The two men wore white t-shirts with a red circle and line over Lochte’s last name and stepped onto the stage from the audience after the Olympian’s foxtrot with pro dancer Cheryl Burke.
In his first public appearance since the incident, Lochte performed live on ABC’s reality show, which is the American version of Strictly Come Dancing.
They quickly tried to cut to commercial break, but both Lochte and Burke were affected by the moment in a behind-the-scenes cut.
As Inaba began to talk, screams from the audience could be heard and the judge said “excuse me” to someone off camera.
“Dancing with the Stars” host Tom Bergeron addressed the interruption after the commercial break. He and other members of the U.S. Olympic swimming team had reportedly caused damage at a gas station and were ordered to pay money by armed security guards. No one was harmed during the incident but many were shaken up by it.
After the incident, Bergeron asked Lochte how he was holding up.
“So many feelings are going through my head right now”.
Earlier in the night Lochte called the competition his “second chance”, adding, “My biggest regret is letting other people down and now I want to prove to the world that I’ve changed”. “I did something that I did not know how to do – I don’t know how to dance”, he said.
“I had to realize that I came out here in front of millions”. Initially Lochte claimed he was robbed at gunpoint, but later recanted his story.
Professional dancer Witney Carson, who this year is paired with Robert Van Winkle, known best as Vanilla Ice, said she’d never seen anything like the incident during her time on the show. “Me and Ryan have gotten to know each other, and he’s an awesome guy”.
“You know, you have to keep pushing, have another great week next week”, he said.
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“I basically told them (the protesters) aggressively that they need to leave because you don’t do that here”, Derek told the website.
