Fact number one about US Olympic Gold medalist Ryan Lochte: he really loves his dog. 

Carter, Lochte's canine companion, is regularly praised on social media by his owner for the mere virtue of being an all round good dog.

Like most people though, Lochte saves the majority of his love and affection for Carter's birthday. Which was yesterday.

It's lovely that Lochte goes to the effort of making a fuss of Carter over social media, however we now have legitimate concerns that the Olympic swimmer doesn't understand how birthdays work. You see, just before sending out Carter's birthday tweet, Lochte sent out a tweet saying that Carter was eight. No big deal, right? It was just a typo and Lochte realised his mistake straight away and corrected himself by deleting the tweet?

That would be the logical explanation. However as one Twitter researcher has unearthed, Lochte has been celebrating Carter's 'eight birthday' for three years now.

Yesterday's original tweet, as an isolated incident, really is a small thing but when taken side by side the previous two birthdays it really does showcase a stunning lack of understanding of the concept of ageing on the part of Lochte.

Via Uproxx