U.S. Swimmer Ryan Lochte Suspended, Other Olympians Punished

Disgraced gold medalist Ryan Lochte and three other Olympic swimmers have been suspended from competition by U.S.A. Swimming for reportedly lying to Brazilian police about a late-night Rio outing that Lochte claimed ended with an armed robbery. He will forfeit $100,000 in bonus money for his relay gold medal.

Lochte was charged Aug. 25 with filing a false police report, with a court planning to summon him back to Brazil, according to the Associated Press.

Lochte, who has won 12 Olympic swimming medals in his career, will serve a 10-month suspension, cannot compete in the 2017 world championship meet and must forfeit all United States Olympic Committee and USA Swimming medal funding for the gold medal he earned as part of the men's 4x200 freestyle relay in Rio.

Police said they had evidence swimmers Lochte, Gunnar Bentz of Atlanta, Jack Conger of Rockville, Maryland, and Jimmy Feigen vandalized a gas station Aug. 14 after a night out partying during the Olympics. Lochte reportedly made up the story after they broke a locked door at a gas station on their way back to the Olympic village, then argued with a gas station employee about the damage, according to multiple media reports. The athletes paid about $60 to compensate for the damage and left.

As part of his punishment, Lochte will not receive a monthly stipend and will have no direct support or access to USOC training facilities during the suspension. Lochte will also have to perform 20 hours of community service, reports USA Today.

Bentz, Conger and Feigen will be suspended from domestic and international USA Swimming national team competitions for four months, say officials, and lose their monthly stipends and access to USOC training facilities during that span.

All four swimmers will miss Team USA’s post-Olympics trip to the White House, the Associated Press says.

Lochte has been charged, and the case has been referred to the courts, Brazilian police said, according to Yahoo News. "Ryan Lochte was charged with the crime of falsely reporting a crime," police said in a statement.

The swimmer has been summoned to testify in Rio over his alleged vandalism at the gas station, a Brazilian official confirmed to ABC News. He cannot testify in the U.S. and would have to appear in person in Brazil's courts or be tried in absentia, Fox News reports. There is no penalty for Lochte if he does not appear in Brazil to testify.

Lochte — who lost his endorsement deals because of the turmoil — signed a new deal late in August with Pine Bros. Softish Throat Drops. He will appear in commercial and print ads for the product with the tagline, "Pine Brothers Softish Throat Drops: Forgiving On Your Throat." And he is on the roster of celebrities to compete in ABC's "Dancing With The Stars," as Season 23 premieres Monday, Sept. 12, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Ryan is matched with pro partner Cheryl Burke, who has won the reality competition before.

As Brazilian authorities examined surveillance footage from the gas station — where an armed guard tried to stop the athletes' car — Lochte hopped a flight back to the United States. Teammates Conger and Bentz were removed from their U.S.-bound flight for questioning and reportedly told police the robbery story was fabricated. Both men were allowed to fly home a day later, with local crowds jeering at them, calling them "liars" and "fakes."

Feigen apologized for making a false police report and agreed to pay a $10,800 fine, to an unspecified charity, in order to get his passport back and receive permission to leave Brazil, reports SBNation.

As his story drew heavy scrutiny from police in Brazil, Lochte posted an apology on Twitter, and told Brazil's Globo TV: "I wasn't lying to a certain extent. I over-exaggerated what was happening to me."

Lochte posted a statement on Twitter Aug. 19 that apologized for taking the focus away from the Olympic Games. He said that he should have been more responsible while out in Rio — and said he was heavily intoxicated on the night in question — but didn't admit to a lie.

"It's traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country ... and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave," Lochte said.
Read his full statement here:

The scandal has cost Lochte lucrative endorsement deals, including swimsuit company Speedo USA, clothing brand Ralph Lauren, skin care firm Syneron-Candela and mattress maker airweave, reports CNBC.

"I was immature and I made a stupid mistake. I'm human. I made a mistake and I definitely learned from this," Lochte said in an interview on the "Today" show. "They (the people of Rio) put on a great Games... And my immature, intoxicated behavior tarnished that a little."

Conger said in a statement that he deeply regretted the “trouble and embarrassment this event has brought to the people of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro, and the distraction it has caused from the achievements of my fellow Olympians.” The relay swimmer said he had been “completely truthful” in his account of the event, reports The Washington Post.

“This has been an unsettling, humbling and frightening experience,” Conger said in the release. “It’s a reminder that all of us, when we travel and especially when we represent the US in the Olympics, are ambassadors for our country and should be on our best behavior.”

Conflicting Accounts Given in Rio
US Olympic Committee Chief Executive Scott Blackmun apologized "to our hosts in Rio and the people of Brazil," saying that the behavior of the swimmers was not acceptable and that potential consequences would be decided later.

An unnamed Brazilian police official told The Associated Press that 12-time Olympic medalist Lochte fabricated the story about being robbed at gunpoint, first telling his mother about the purported crime, says ESPN.

Judge Marcello Rubioli, the head of the special court handling the case that has taken on international news coverage as Brazil disputes the PR black eye, says that making a false claim carries little punishment in the country.

As the furor began, Lochte talked to NBC's Matt Lauer and tweaked his earlier comments on the robbery. NBC News reported that Lochte said he and his teammates weren't pulled over, as he had previously stated, but that they were at a gas station when they were robbed. And he said the robber pointed a gun in his direction, not at his forehead, as he had first said.

"We wouldn't make this story up," Lochte reportedly told "Today's" Lauer.

One discrepancy Lochte discussed was whether one of the robbers had actually put a gun to Lochte's forehead. "That's not exactly what happened," Lochte said, according to a USA Today story. Lochte told Lauer one of the robbers cocked the gun and pointed it inches away from him, but not right at his forehead as he first said.

Photo: Ryan Lochte, Credit: Team USA/Flickr