Shortly afterwards, clothing giant Ralph Lauren and Syneron-Candela followed suit.
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Initial claims that Lochte and three other teams were held up by fake policemen after a night out were further clouded after the swimmer, while drunk, admitted that parts of the story were “over-exaggerated”.
A Syneron-Candela statement said: “Syneron-Candela will be ending its partnership with Ryan Lochte”.
Becoming the first major sponsor to cut ties with Lochte due to the incident, Speedo said that it can not condone Lochte’s behavior which is against the values they stood for.
Speedo will also be donating $50,000 of Lochte’s fee to Save The Children – a charity helping Brazilian children.
The mattress company that sponsored the US Olympics said that the partnership has ended between the two.
Shortly after that announcement on Monday came a statement from designer Ralph Lauren that its endorsement agreement with Lochte would not be renewed.
And now, Lochte is feeling the effects of his made up story: four companies have chose to end their partnerships with him.
USA business magazine Forbes calculated that in the year of the 2012 London Olympics, Lochte earned about $2 million in sponsorships from companies such as Gillette, Nissan, AT&T and Gatorade. 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.
Speedo was the first to drop the swimmer. The swimwear manufacturer added, “We appreciate his many achievements and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience”.
And Ralph Lauren, another company that sponsored Lochte during the 2016 Rio Olympics, told ABC News today that they will not be renewing his contract.
Airweave, a mattress supplier, also said the company carefully considered its partnership with Lochte, but ultimately chose to end it.
“I was coming from the France house, I was highly intoxicated, and I made immature accusations”, Lochte said in an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer.
After U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte got caught in his own lie about getting robbed in Rio de Janeiro, things started to unravel for the Olympian.
Ryan Lochte may have won a gold medal for the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay, but he isn’t having a good few weeks.
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Lochte still faces potential discipline from the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming, which could affect his ability to participate in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
