Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte have competed in four Olympics together. They've roomed together, eaten together and grown old (relatively speaking) together.

But after Lochte became Rio's most- wanted man after fabricating his story of being robbed at gunpoint at a gas station by men masquerading as police, Phelps kept his distance, according to a USA Today article.

After Lochte returned to Charlotte, N.C., on Aug. 17 with his girlfriend — the same day Brazilian authorities sought his passport, and also the day Lochte said he had planned to leave the country — he decided to reach out to his old friend.

Yet during Lochte's six days of seclusion in Charlotte, he couldn't reach Phelps by phone.

They exchanged text messages, but the phone call Lochte expected to come never did.

“I think he texted me back saying, ‘Yeah, sure. I'm here to help,' or something like that,” Lochte told USA Today. “But he didn't call me. I was like, ‘Hey, can you please call me? Let me know, I need help.' That never really happened.”

Whatever the reason, Lochte told the newspaper, there were no hard feelings.

“I figured it could have been like his people saying, ‘Don't associate with [Lochte] right now. Lay low,'?” he said. “It could be anything.”

Phelps has kept largely mum on the matter publicly. He told People magazine in late August that it was “hard to see a friend and a competitor going through a hard time like this.”

?— Jonas Shaffer