The Olympics ended three months ago, but it still seems that you can’t turn on a TV or open a magazine without seeing U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte.

Along with beating swimming phenom Michael Phelps in the 400-meter individual medley in London, Lochte’s gained fame for a number of reasons from wearing American flag grills to giving consistently awful interviews to confessing to peeing in the Olympic pool; he’s parlayed the Olympic coverage into a persistent pop culture presence.

In the past few months, Lochte’s professed his ambitions to launch a clothing line and become the next “Bachelor,” appeared on TV shows “90210” and “30 Rock,” been a fashion week correspondent for the E! Network and was the subject of an SNL parody by Seth MacFarlane.

Lochte claims that all his appearances have been for the greater cause of increasing the popularity of swimming, not for himself.

“That’s one of the goals me and Michael Phelps are trying to [achieve],” Lochte told ESPN. “You see the NBA, you see NFL, the NHL always on TV. Why can’t swimming be like that? It’s the most talked-about sport at the Olympics, why can’t we have that every year?”

But the chances of swimming becoming a national pastime on the scale of football or baseball are slim to none. The very traits that make it so popular at the Olympics, namely the shortness of the events and the nationalist spirit behind the US team, undercut the sport’s chances of becoming popular outside of the Olympics. Most swimming events are under five minutes long; that’s hardly long enough to attract an audience or entice people to buy pricey tickets. Also, without the United States label that unites them in the Olympics, individual swimmers lack a fan base—there’s no “home team” to root for.

Patrick Scordato, one of the boys swim team captains, believes that swimming will never be as popular as other sports in the United States.

“I love to swim, but it’s incredibly boring to watch on television,” he said. “Without a running score like in basketball or football, it’s simply not exciting.”

Frankly, Lochte is using swimming as a flimsy explanation for his relentless self-promotion. If he wants to compete again in Rio in 2016 and finally live up to his great expectations, he should concentrate on himself as a swimmer—not a reality star and tabloid presence.