Ryan Lochte Sells Three Olympic Gold Medals for More Than $300K
According to a report by Darren Rovell, an authority in the collectibles market, Ryan Lochte sold three of his Olympic gold medals on Saturday night for a sum totaling nearly $400,000. Lochte sold the medals through Goldin Auctions and got $385,520 for the hardware, his gold medal from the 800-meter freestyle relay at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing fetching the highest price.
Lochte’s gold medal from the 800 freestyle relay in Beijing sold for a price of $183,000. That relay featured Michael Phelps, who claimed a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Games to break Mark Spitz’s longstanding record of seven gold medals at a single Games. The auction saw Lochte’s gold medal from the 800 freestyle relay at the 2004 Olympics in Athens go for $80,520 and his gold medal from the 800 freestyle relay at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro went for $122,000.
“I never swam for the gold medals,” Lochte wrote on social media when it was revealed he was auctioning the medals. “My passion has always been about being one of the best swimmers in the world. Those medals? They were just the cherry on top of an incredible journey.”
In 2022, Lochte sold six other Olympic medals for a total of $166,000.