USA swimmer Ryan Lochte lost the last of his four major sponsors, Japanese mattress maker Airweave, days after he admitted to exaggerating his story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio during the Olympics.
Advertisement
Swimsuit company Speedo USA, clothing giant Ralph Lauren and skin-care firm Syneron-Candela issued statements less than three hours apart, all with the same message: Lochte is out.
In addition to this, Speedo announced that it would donate $50,000 of Lochte’s fee to the Save the Children charity in Brazil.
“We can not condone behavior that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for”, Speedo said in a statement. “We appreciated his many achievements and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience”, the Speedo statement read.
It was a PR nightmare for the U.S. Olympic committee, and now several of Lochte’s sponsors are cutting ties with the athlete. A Ralph Lauren spokesman on Monday said the company’s agreement with Mr. Lochte was specifically for the Rio Olympics, and that it “will not be renewing his contract”.
Another Lochte sponsor, Airweave, the official mattress supplier for the USOC at the Summer Games, has also nixed its deal with the swimmer.
Six-time Olympic gold medallist Lochte has now admitted he “over-exaggerated” what had happened, although he has continued to claim he was not telling an outright lie.
Lochte was among four United States swimmers who initially claimed they had been robbed at gunpoint when returning to the Olympic Village, before closed circuit television footage emerged of the men vandalising a petrol station following a night out. Both stressed they would continue their support of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams. “We hold our employees to high standards, and we expect the same of our business partners”, Syneron-Candela, the brand’s parent company, said in a statement. The statement from airweave said it had a similar arrangement with the swimmer. “We wish Ryan well on his future endeavours and thank him for the time he spent supporting our brand”. “And my immature, intoxicated behavior tarnished that a little”, Lochte said. It appears that the swimmers vandalized a public restroom and then got into an argument with the security guard, giving him $50 for the damages they caused.
Advertisement
Police said the group had been detained over the vandalization of a gas station bathroom, apparently led by a drunken Lochte – a major embarrassment for Team USA, an Olympic swimming powerhouse. Lochte did help Phelps and the Americans win gold in the 4×200 freestyle relay.
