Ryan Lochte Previews ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Week 3

One week after channeling Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy for Dancing With the Stars’ TV Themes week, Ryan Lochte and his partner, Cheryl Burke, are set to take on their biggest challenge yet: a fierce face-off dance against fellow mirror-ball contenders James Hinchcliffe and Sharna Burgess. In this blog, Lochte details his Week 3 dance for us, what he learned from last week’s Muppet Show quickstep, and how the Dancing With the Stars cast made him feel like part of the family with those heart-adorned Lochte T-shirts.

This week we’re dancing the cha-cha, so it’s a Latin dance. And I’m really looking forward to this. This is definitely something completely different from what I did in my first two dances, so I’m really excited.

The face-off theme is really challenging. You and your dance partner go up against another dance partner, so it’s like mano a mano, and the winner with the highest scores gets immunity for the elimination the next day. So it’s really important to try and win this, because you want to get that immunity so you can head on to next week. And we’re going up against one of the best couples on the show. It’s definitely going to be a big challenge for me, but I think Cheryl and I are up for it. If I score a higher score than James and Sharna on Monday night’s show, then I get immunity, and then Tuesday I’m basically there just to experience a great show.

I know the judges are harsh, but they’re honest. I’m going to listen to them because they’re not going to lie to me; they’re going tell me the truth. The things I really have to work on are what they’ve talked about, so I just have to make sure I’m paying attention and try to work harder for the next time.

My biggest challenge has just been learning how to dance. I’ve never danced in my entire life, and being in water my whole entire life, I’ve spent 26 years trying to perfect a swimmer’s body. Now that I have it, I’ve got to completely change it — and I’m on land! It’s a completely different thing, but I’ve been enjoying this process, and having Cheryl as my partner has been amazing.

Last week, after everything that’s been going on in my life, having something that was more upbeat, more happy — it definitely really helped with my overall attitude. I wasn’t just going to rehearsal and dancing to a depressing song or anything like that. So that definitely lightened my mood and helped me to be able to learn how to dance.

When the cast wore the heart T-shirts, it was more proof of how close people get on this show and how supportive and loving and caring they are. It made me feel so at home when they did that. That’s why I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to leave this behind. This is something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life.

To all the fans out there who voted for me, thank you for the support. I couldn’t have done this without you. You guys just keep voting for me, and I’m going to keep trying to do what I don’t know how to do — and try to prove to everyone that I can do this. (As told to Victoria Leigh Miller)

Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Ryan Lochte is a competitive swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist. He is currently competing on the 23rd season of Dancing With the Stars.