When RZA and Method Man from Wu-Tang rocked those platinum vampire grills, it was cool: they were putting their own distinct stamp on a already freakish articulation of bling innovated by Southern hip-hop stars of the day. Wu-Tang’s fangs put a distinctive twist on a ghetto style trend, twisting it to fit their myth; so what’s going on, then, when one of today’s most elite athletes shows up to a crucial event with a Dracula mouthful of diamonds? That’s what happened when we peeped a New York Time article on the recent ascent of Ryan Lochte.

The article’s accompanying picture features Lochte with a sparklingly enhanced incisor chomping on a gold medal – the award he won for beating Michael Phelp’s world record in the 200-meter intermediate medley yesterday at the swimming world championships in Rome. The piece then went on to describe the 24-year-old swimming superstar as having “an adolescent’s fixation on the rapper Lil Wayne”; as Wayne arguably coined the term “bling” – or at least popularized it beyond his New Orleans ‘hood – Lochte’s trademark grill obsession isn’t so shocking.

Personally, I don’t know what’s more shocking – Lochte’s embrace of garish-peacock mouth jewelry at an elite sporting event, or the fact that the New York Times actually put a “z” on the end of “grillz.” Either way, ya gotta give it up for Lochte getting his ice freak on in such a bold, public manner – it is a distinctive move, and conveys a post-modern awareness that sports have indeed become the new pop culture. Then again, there may actually be a method to Lochte’s Cash Money madness. After all, if your j-o-b is to swim with sharks, well, a champion sporting fangs in the water just might prove… Sensible?