What has it been like to be the famous Ryan Lochte? What is dating like?

I guess you can say it's a lot easier. [laughs] It's just more and more people know who I am, and more and more people are more eager to come up to me and take a picture. Or come up to me to just talk. So I meet a lot of more people and I love it. I love meeting new people. So in that aspect, it's easy. But it's fun too, because I get to meet so many people.

We've been doing a lot of stuff about online dating stories? Have you ever done any of that?

No. Not yet. I just recently signed up for Tinder though. I heard going back to the Sochi Olympics the athletes were using Tinder in the Village and everything, so I started using that. So we'll just have to wait and see.

I was going to ask you about Olympic Village stories. Is it as crazy as everyone says? What's the vibe like?

I mean, honestly if you're an outsider looking in it seems like one big party. Just because you just have so many people from so many different countries. Different athletes that are there just because they're there. You know? They're not really there to compete. Just showing up to party or whatever. And you have people who finish their competition early, so then they just hang out in the village, up at late hours, banging on their drums, yelling, chanting their national anthems. All this stuff. So it gets really loud.

Did you have any fun, crazy stories last time around?

No, one good thing about USA is that we have this code of conduct. So once you sign this code of conduct you have to be in your bed by a certain time. You can't have girls in a guy's room or guys in a girl's room. No alcohol. You're there to compete, you're not there to party. So once swimming is all said and done if you want to do those kind of things, you have to leave the Village and go on your own.

You became one of the breakout athletes of the last Olympics, and you had this defined persona that people gravitated towards as this just handsome, silly dude. What was that like and did you feel like your public persona was an accurate version of yourself?

I would say it was an exaggerated version of myself. I guess people said I was a good looking guy, but I think they over-exaggerated the silly part. And took that as, "Oh, he's dumb blah, blah, blah." And I think that was the perception that got over-exaggerated a lot. But I am a big kid. So I'm going to enjoy my life. I'm always going to walk around with a smile, and I'm going to be happy.

Last time around you were rocking some grills, are you bringing them back? What's your fashion trend for 2016?

Oh, man, I don't know. But that is my trademark, those grills. So I might definitely have to get a new pair of grills. But other than that, during the Olympics we're so structured about what to wear so we look like a team. But outside of that you might see some fashionable clothing I might be wearing.

Swimmers famously go hairless, what's that process like?

Being a swimmer, I've been shaving my entire body since I was like 13 or 14. And you think by doing it after so many years, it gets easier, but I always end up cutting myself. And it takes four or five hours to shave. And it's just not fun. When I got together with [Ed. note: Plug alert] Gentle Laser Hair Removal because it's permanent, fast, and effective. And it's painless. When I tried that, I was like, this is like a goldmine. And it's so much smoother than regular shaving, because I don't have to worry about it growing back. Because during the Olympics it's like a seven-day meet. You always find yourself re-shaving throughout the meet. With gentle laser hair removal I don't have to worry about that. And I jump into the water slick as a board. It's actually one of the key things I've changed from 2012.

That does seem like an advantage. How—

Yeah. It's an advantage. So you can't tell anyone. [laughs]

Don't worry. I'll keep it quiet. Definitely won't plug it. But seriously, I've always wondered about swimmers. It's kind of an old observation that women love male swimmers but does the hairlessness surprise women?

I think ladies love swimmers because we're hairless.

Oh yeah? Is this based on personal experience?

Maybe. Kinda. [laughs] If you look good, you feel good.