Swimwear maker Speedo and luxury retailer Ralph Lauren Corp ended their sponsorship contracts with Ryan Lochte, days after the US swimmer admitted to exaggerating his story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio during the Olympics.
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It added: “We appreciate his many achievements and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience”. Both stressed they would continue their support of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams.
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The trouble began when media reports emerged on August 14 that Lochte and three other US swimmers – Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen – were robbed at gunpoint when their cab was pulled over by men posing as police.
“As long as he is a respectable athlete, he will remain a U.S. ambassador for Airweave as long as our partnership agreement remains effective”, Motokuni Takaoka, CEO of Airweave, had said in an email.
In addition to severing its sponsorship ties with Lochte, Speedo announced it would donate $50,000 from Lochte’s endorsement fee to a Brazilian charity for children.
While there have been conflicting versions over whether the guards pulled their weapons on the swimmers, Lochte has since acknowledged he was highly intoxicated and that his behavior led to the confrontation, which resulted in the swimmers paying some $50 in US and Brazilian currency before they were allowed to leave.
That version quickly unraveled when police said the swimmers, who had attended a late-night party, never reported the incident to authorities and there was scant evidence of a robbery.
On Monday he said he respects Speedo’s decision to end his sponsorship.
The company, which early Monday still had a photo of Lochte wearing an Olympic medal on its twitter home page, has since taken that image down. The incident caused a furor in Rio, where street crime was a major issue heading into the games.
Four firms have announced they are ending their sponsorship of United States swimmer Ryan Lochte after he claimed he was robbed at gunpoint while competing in Rio. As he points out, Ryan Lochte is not the first athlete to find himself in hot water and there have certainly been other athletes who have done much more embarrassing things.
“I omitted the facts that we urinated behind the building and that Ryan Lochte pulled a poster off the wall”, Feigen said in the statement.
The incident endangered Lochte’s chance of participating in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and he may also possibly face legal charges in Brazil. Feigen eventually paid nearly $11,000 to a sports foundation and was allowed to leave Brazil.
“I wasn’t lying to a certain extent”, he said, in an interview with Brazilian broadcaster, Globo TV.
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The Olympics are officially over, but for Ryan Lochte the fall out from his time in Rio is really just beginning.
