The three American Olympic swimmers, Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger involved with Ryan Lochte in the infamous gunpoint altercation in Rio last month have been suspended from the United States national team for four months.
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Lochte, whose 10-month suspension will have him miss the 2017 national championships, making him ineligible for the world championships, will forfeit his gold-medal bonus from the 2016 Rio Games and has to perform 20 hours of community service. The punishment for his involvement in the drunken incident in Brazil during the recently concluded Olympics will mean Lochte will not participate in the national and world swimming championships in 2017.
U.S. gold medal swimmer Ryan Lochte is suspended over a scandal at the Olympics in Rio.
“These athletes took accountability for their mistakes and are committed to represent themselves and our country with the great character and distinction we expect”.
Gunnar Bentz, Jimmy Feigen and Jack Conger have each been banned for four months.
Lochte said he made a decision to “get out there” and do the show, rather than hiding following his incident in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
As time went on, it soon became clear that the whole account was a hoax created by the swimmers to cover up the fact that they were inebriated and vandalized a gas station at the time of the incident.
Even before talks of possible suspension, Lochte already found himself losing sponsors left and right.
The two bodies are also cutting off his funding and Lochte will have to do 20 hours community service and won’t get to take part in Team USA’s trip to the White House.
Neither the US Olympic Committee nor USA Swimming immediately responded to requests for comment.
He’s now being charged in Brazil for filing a false police report.
3. During the suspension, no direct support or access to training centers or other facilities of the USOC.
He will get no monthly funding from either organisation, can not access USOC training centres, must perform 20 hours of community service and will miss Team USA’s post-Olympics trip to the White House.
“The behavior of these athletes was not acceptable”, USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement Thursday, referring to Lochte and his three other teammates, who were also involved in the alleged gas station altercation in August.
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Due that suspension from swimming, Lochte will likely have a lot of time to devote to Dancing with the Stars. “… Unfortunately, this storyline took attention away from the athletes who deserved it the most”.
