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Ryan Lochte loses four sponsors over lies, 2016 Rio Olympics scandal

“We appreciate his many achievements and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience”, Speedo said of Lochte.

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In addition, Ralph Lauren said in a statement Monday, “Ralph Lauren continues to proudly sponsor the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Team and the values that its athletes embody”. The company, which designs the outfits worn by US athletes during the opening and closing ceremonies, said Monday that the endorsement was specifically for the 2016 Olympics, and would not be renewed.

Syneron-Candela offers a line of skin-treatment products that deal with issues such as wrinkle reduction.

Syneron-Candela said: “We hold our employees to high standards, and we expect the same of our business partners”.

Speedo was the first to drop its long-standing sponsorship of Lochte on Monday as the swimwear apparel company also announced it would donate a $50,000 portion of Lochte’s fee to Save The Children. He did not immediately address the other companies dropping their endorsements.

“I respect Speedo’s decision and am grateful for the opportunities that our partnership has afforded me over the years”, Lochte said. Officials later revealed that the early Saturday-morning incident was quite different: Lochte and some of his teammates vandalized a gas station, urinated on the premises, then paid for the damages when confronted by armed guards. In his first televised mea culpa on NBC, he admitted he was “still intoxicated” when he made the initial robbery claim during an appearance on the network August 14.

“They [the people of Rio] put on a great Games”.

Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of OR, said he wasn’t surprised by the decision since most of Lochte’s marketing value was tied to campaigns prior to the Olympics. “For someone like Lochte, he’s really destroyed nearly all of his short-term marketability”.

Speedo, Ralph Lauren pull plug over false claims in Rio.

Mattress company Airweave LLC also ended its endorsement of Lochte, who has admitted he “over-exaggerated” his story where he claimed to have been mugged by robbers pretending to be police after a night out.

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 has since apologized for his “over-exggerated” version of the story citing language barriers in a foreign country as the cause for misleading account.

“I wasn’t lying to a certain extent”, he said, in an interview with Brazilian broadcaster, Globo TV.

Lochte is one of the most successful swimmers in history, with 12 Olympic medals, and he once had his own reality television show in the US.

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For these games, he qualified in only one individual event, finishing fifth in the 200-meter individual medley, far behind longtime rival Michael Phelps.

Sponsors ditch Ryan Lochte after Rio robbery tale
By Kevin Allen | Posted