By Marc Raimondi

Ryan Lochte's competitive swimming days are not over, he said. They're just in a holding pattern.

The controversial U.S. swimmer told Mario Lopez of Extra last week that he will definitely be back in swimming, maybe even attempting to make the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

"I definitely want to be back in the sport," Lochte said. "But right now I'm in my break from the sport, which is really good. It works out perfectly, so now I can try to dance. But I will be back."


The dancing Lochte is talking about, of course, is of a high-profile nature. He's on this season of "Dancing With The Stars." After a crazy few months that featured him filing a false robbery report in Rio de Janeiro to protestors accosting him, Lochte said the show has been much more difficult than he could have imagined.

"This is 10 times harder," he said. "Being an athlete, I thought, oh this would be a piece of cake learning how to dance. It is so hard."

One of the worst parts was not in the show's script. Earlier this month, protestors rushed the stage and were tackled by "DWTS" security. The man were upset because they felt Lochte made the U.S. look bad when he claimed he was robbed at gunpoint in Brazil. What really happened was that Lochte and other swimmers vandalized and urinated on a Rio gas station. Lochte apologized and was suspended by USA Swimming for 10 months.

Lochte, 32, was a wanted man in Brazil. And the protestors also ended up getting arrested. Lochte described the entire incident on the "DWTS" set as frightening.

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"I was in shock. At first, I thought it was part of the show. I was like, 'OK guys that wasn't really funny.'

"They could have came after us. We don't know. To have my family there in the stands watching that, I felt really bad."

The helter skelter summer seems to be in Lochte's past. He said he'll be returning to swimming after the suspension. But for right now, he's focused on trying to win "Dancing With The Stars" alongside partner Cheryl Burke. And it has not been easy.

"A whole 'nother language," Lochte said. "I'm a fish out of water. Exactly. Literally, I am."