Ryan Lochte‘s attorney says he will let the public decide whether or not Lochte was treated fairly by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in the aftermath of the gas station incident in Rio. According to the USOC, Lochte has agreed to a 10-month suspension from USA Swimming and will also be ineligible for the 2017 World Championships. In addition, he will have to return all funding from the USOC and USA swimming for the gold medal he won in the 4×200 free relay in Rio. Other sanctions include no monthly stipend from USOC or access to their facilities for the duration of the suspension.
Though Lochte has accepted his sanctions and is working toward moving past the incident, his lawyer Jeff Ostrow believes that this punishment is unnecessarily harsh. “That said, in my opinion, while the collective sanctions appear to be harsh when considering what actually happened that day – Â Ryan did not commit a crime, he did not put the public safety at risk, and he did not cheat in his sport – we will leave it to others to evaluate the appropriateness of the penalties.” Ostrow said according to USA Today (see full article here).
After Lochte embellished details about the incident, Rio police met with the swimmers and conducted an investigation. Rio authorities initially stated that the swimmers had filed a false police report. Later, authorities reported that of the four swimmers, only Lochte and Jimmy Feigen issued any false statements though Lochte’s legal team denies this claim.
Though Lochte is receiving a 10 month suspension, by comparison, the other swimmers involved in the incident will be suspended from competition for four months. Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, and Jimmy Feigen will also lose their monthly stipends as well as access to USOC facilities. All four of the athletes will not be allowed to visit the white house with the rest of Team USA and will be barred from attending USA Swimming’s 2016 Golden Goggle Awards.
We must realize that being charged of a crime outside of the US as a representative of the US is way worse than being caught drunk like so many teenagers. Lochte was was representing our country, our way of life, or beliefs and he messed it up so bad.
As I said in my previous reply, he touched a very sensible subject for Brazilians. Something that they are not proud of and joked about it. Like we would get offended if a foreign celebrity came here and joke about mass shootings or terrorist attacks.
It looked super bad for Team USA. I believe they took this seriously specially because of that, they want to show the world that… Read more »
it is Brazil you need to make amends with for the future .Brazilians are not a problem for the USA – they don’t run drug cartels or pose a large illegal immigrant challenge. All it has been is hate hate & more hate from Americans .
Start by acknowleging not one – no not one case of Zika was reported in Rio in August . An apology because you were guests might go a long way .You are never right in another’s country – fact of life .
And Americans should make amends to Brazil by never going there. American Olympians were treated like dirt. Brazilians despise Americans and we should not go there.
Lochte should also go an face justice in Brazil. Extraditing people from around the world, who have never even set foot on US soil, for hacking and wire fraud might seem fair to US citizens, but natural justice dictates that it should be a two way street. Lochte has been indicted for committing a crime on Brazillian soil, and he should be man enough to go and face the consequences. To quote Lochte “if you want to be a man at night, and go out dancing, then you have got to be a man in the morning”. Come on Ryan, go down to Brazil and face the music.
For the crime of telling the truth?
If he is telling the truth, he will be aquitted. Unfortunately three American witnesses have confirmed via sworn statements that he was lying. BTW they still stand by their statements, so they were not taken under duress. Ryan needs to take his punishment. If that turns out to be 6 months in prison, then so be it. His stretch will run concurrently with his swimming ban, so he won’t even miss out that much.
There is not enough information made available here to make an informed decision. The medal incentive money agreement may contain copious fine print that is tied to behavior outside of the purely competitive act of engaging in swimming. If I were going to wack Lochte’s tail a little more,..I’d say that encouraging teammates out after curfew who are not 21 years of age was an act for he should get added punishment. I hope he gets rehab. He has lost his way.
Lochte’s idiot attorney is really annoying. I remembered when the robbery tale broke that the attorney was the main instigator in amplifying Lochte’s ridiculous tall tale. Now this dude is at it again? Shut up already! I remembered saying the Brazilian bandidos had to be more than one because according to the attorney, if it was just one robber then tough guy Lochte could easily kicked the robber’s ass. LOL. I would hate to be Lochte’s attorney. It must be very ridiculous spin such childish tale from Lochte’s imagination.
Completely agree with Mr. Lochte’s position. Anyone who donates to USOC should rethink whether the organization is properly representing the athletes and our country.
USA Swimming and USOC handle these things exactly like a court and they are strict when they need to be and they also give second chances when they need to – I am one of those lucky ones 🙂
However, those folks decides that this punishment fits the crime and I kinda agree! Ryan acted a fool, spread rumors, lied about it, tried to apologize but spent more time justifying his disrespect and saying he was “scared…” NOW his lawyer is crying about the punishment?? Yes Ryan absolutely deserves these punishments for not taking this seriously at all.
OFF TOPIC:
It looks like Dos Equis has selected Michael Phelps to be its next “Most Interesting Man in the World.”
See for yourself in this 35-second video:
https://youtu.be/8KqjvM7r2xY
Uncanny.
I believe all the BOYS were punished too harshly. This incident if it occurred in the US wouldn’t have resulted in ANYTHING. It became an incident because Lochte told his mother who told the press. Given the language barrier and culture differences I can understand why the boys thought they were being held up. Remember the context as well- ALOT of athletes and tourists were being mugged with and without guns. So I can understand their perspective. The only exaggeration appears to be Lochte’s claim that the gun was pointed at his head. All of this punishment for no actual crime, misdemeanor or felonious. Phelps was actually convicted in US courts for DUI and got less punishment. That being said… Read more »
Weird that you have dislikes on the comment. All common sense stuff you said.
They were not boys! Lochte is a 32 year old man for goodness sake! “ALOT of athletes and tourists were being mugged with and without guns”. Care to explain by “ALOT”? There were over 4,000 athletes at the games. So you mean to tell me almost all 4,000 athletes and their families were mugged? I was watching the games on TV and the network showed shots of family members of Raisman, Phelps, Biles, etc. and they look like they were not mugged. Your statement is pure BS! No wonder people around the world call some Americans as the “Ugly Americans”. I doubt you ever even set foot in Brazil.
He committed a crime in Brazil, by lying to the Police. Have a look at a map, Brazil is not the USA.
The “public” has already decided and moved on. Notice how all of Lochte’s sponsors dropped him in a very public way.
By the time the “Dancing of the Stars” season ends, the suspension will be over anyway, he’ll be training for Tokyo or whatever he wants to do, so is it “too harsh”? No…
It also allows him to have a nice “come back” story and get picked up by new high end sponsors.