American Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte not only wowed the crowd with the precious metal around his neck, he also showed off his red, white and blue diamond-encrusted grill.
After Lochte scored a gold medal in the 400-meter Individual Medley, he showed photographers his sparkling, American flag mouthpiece.
Lochte has rocked other special grills at numerous events in the past, such as the 2007 World Aquatics Championship in Melbourne, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2009 World Championship in Rome, and the 2011 World Championship in Shanghai, according to Yahoo News.
But Lochte had this American flag grill specially made for the 2012 Olympics.
For the uninitiated, Lochte offered a succinct explanation of the patriotic mouth wear during a June 2011 interview.
"For those who don't know what a grill is, it's basically a retainer filled with diamonds," Lochte said in the interview. "I wear it when I go on the podium. It's just a unique way of showing personality out to everyone."
The 27-year-old reportedly wanted to wear his diamond grill while accepting his gold medal, but a USA Swimming representative said that he was banned from wearing the mouthpiece while on the podium Saturday night, USA Today reported.
ESPN's Wayne Drehs was the first to report on Loche's banned grill, tweeting:
When USA Today spoke with IOC spokesman Mark Adams, he said he would look into whether or not Loche was prevented from wearing his grill on the podium, adding, "I can only speculate that it may have been a uniform issue, that it may not have been part of the uniform."
Nevertheless, Lochte put the grill on after accepting his award.
LOOK: Olympic Champion Ryan Lochte's Patriotic Grill:
