According to CBS Sports, the United States Olympic Committee and USA Swimming both agreed that Lochte should be suspended for 10 months from the sport.
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The USOC awards gold-medal winners a $25,000 bonus, the USA Swimming being awarded a bonus of $75,000 at the last Olympics. He has also been ordered to perform 20 hours of community service and can not join the team at several upcoming events.
The three other USA swimmers who were with Lochte that night – Gunnar Bentz, 20; Jack Conger, 21; and James Feigen, 26 – were hit with four-month suspensions and other punishments. Lochte will also have to perform 20 hours of community service, reports USA Today.
Disciplinary action has been handed down to Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and his teammates following their actions in Rio.
Additionally, Ryan will not be eligible for his monthly USA Swimming stipend of $3,250 during the suspension. “At least try to”, Lochte said on “GMA” in August.
If you were somehow able to tune out all the news of Ryan Lochte and the other American swimmers making up a false report in Rio about being robbed by somebody with a fake police badge after a night out of partying, then consider yourself lucky. That punishment also prevented Phelps from competing on the 2015 worlds team, a decision that prompted a handful of frustrated US swimmers to approach USA Swimming about reinstating Phelps, but that did not happen.
Lochte’s attorney, Jeff Ostrow, did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. He later backtracked after a police investigation found the swimmers were stopped by security guards at a gas station after committing an act of vandalism and paid approximately $50 in damages.
“As we have said previously, the behaviour of these athletes was not acceptable. When Code of Conduct infractions occur, it’s our responsibility to take action that reflects the seriousness of what happened”, USA Swimming’s Executive Director Chuck Wielgus said in the statement.
Images of the footage that was released past week where USA swimmers commit a series of damaging actions at a gas station in Rio de Janeiro.
Lochte’s role in a gas-station confrontation with armed security guards during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics almost overshadowed the Games’ second week.
On Monday night, Ryan joins pro Cheryl in the ballroom for the Season 23 premiere of “Dancing with the Stars”. Record-breaking United States swimming legend Michael Phelps committed two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and he only got suspended for six months.
The swimmer later said he had “over-exaggerated” the story and that he wanted to take “full responsibility” for the incident.
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Lochte might be hoping his DWTS gig will take some of the attention away from his Rio snafu.
