Scott Blackmun, the CEO of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), says that his organization will be announcing further action regarding American swimmers Ryan Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz, and Jack Conger.
Speaking with ESPN, Blackmun didn’t offer details on what is being considered, but did say more action would be coming.
“They let down our athletes,” Blackmun said. “They let down Americans.
“And they really let down our hosts in Rio who did such a wonderful job, and we feel very badly about that. I think we ended up in the right place in terms of being able to shine a light on what really happened there.”
There are several organizations that could sanction the athletes, including FINA, USA Swimming, the International Olympic Committee, and in the case of Bentz and Conger their respective collegiate programs or even the NCAA.
So far, though, all have taken a ‘wait-and-see’ approach and none have announced any specific actions they will take. CNN late last week announced that USA Swimming had suspended Lochte, but a USA Swimming spokesperson denied those reports, claiming that no decisions had been made on any punishment, suspension or otherwise.
The four swimmers are under fire after Lochte, who has become the lightning rod, told international media that the group was robbed at gun point by men impersonating police officers early in the morning on August 14th. Videos would later show that after Lochte caused some damage at the gas station, the group was held by station security guards (who had guns) until around $50 USD equivalent was paid for the damage, when they were allowed to leave. Brazilian authorities claim that the security guards were awaiting police to arrive after the swimmers urinated on the outside of the building and Lochte caused damage. Statements by two of the swimmers, Conger and Bentz, affirm that the swimmers did urinate on the building and concurred that Lochte did cause damage to a sign at the bathroom, and that they knew they weren’t being robbed in the most literal senses – despite Lochte’s claim as such to the media.
Lochte appeared in an interview on NBC on Saturday to explain what he called an “overexaggeration.” Read more about that interview here.
Lochte and Feigen were indicted on charges of falsifying a police report, though there’s been no indication yet of any charges pressed by the owner of the gas station. Lochte left the country prior to those charges being filed against him, but Feigen was unable to leave until making a $10,800 donation to charity, which is allowed under Brazilian law to escape prosecution on minor offenses. All four swimmers are now back in the United States.
Ryan Lochte is such a bad role model for every kid in swimming and I’m glad he’s getting punished. It’s EXTREMELY OBVIOUS that Lochte did this all for attention. Because he swim horribly at the Olympics and didn’t get attention for that, also his Ellen DeGeneres haircut didn’t get the attention he wanted he felt the need to make up a ridiculous story to get the attention he wanted. Trash. Absolute trash. I hope all of these swimmers go straight to hell and are shunned forever becaus ether are f***ing morons who deserve to nothing. I love Phelps tho! 🙂
The USOC owes it to these athletes and USA Swimming to investigate this completely before sanctions are administered.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/08/21/investigation-ryan-lochte-rio-olympics-authorities/89082232/
Now comes the part where some journalists who aren’t lemmings do work. Discovery isn’t the Brazilian police’s friend. This is far from over.
I am eager to hear Jimmy Feigen’s side of the story. After all of the info is becoming more clear it is possible that he actually told the truth to the police. What if they fined him for lying about vandalizing the bathroom, which turns out never happened in the first place?
A different issue: isn’t the proper term ‘et al.’ rather than ‘et. al’ (period after, not before the al) in the title?
How long are we going to have to listen to this rubbish. The only ones being hurt by any sanctions or bans will be the UNITED STATES because they will have lost four of their best swimmers. This never would have happened in London because it’s civilized over there and also they speak the same language and they had exactly HALF the number of security – doesn’t that tell you something bout Rio. Blame the guys, but add Rio into the mix also.
And the whole ‘no guns’ thing.
Should USOC and Rio police send an apology to Bentz and Conger? USA Today is now reporting that Rio cops may have “embellished” just like Ryan Lochte. Rio Cops claimed the American swimmers vandalized the bathroom, but USA Today’s independent investigation show that’s a lie. They also claim Rio Cops only publicly released parts of testimonies given by Conger and Bentz that cast doubt on Lochte’s version of events. They left out the parts of the testimony that supported Lochte’s version of events (i.e. armed security guards, etc.)
To the general public and most journalists, I think the perception is that all 4 of them vandalized the bathroom and they want all 4 swimmers suspended. I support Lochte being suspended,… Read more »
It’s been obvious for the past 5 days that Brazilian police officials lied about the incident, but the USA Today piece is a very solid write-up with the legal analysis.
Based on the most comparable situation from the Seoul Olympics, I would expect no less than 2 year suspension. That was the punishment then for the two relay swimmers who stole the property and created the international scandal so I doubt it would be less now. For the college guys probably less but since we’re making a big play for LA games, I wouldn’t be surprised if the punishment is much more than expected.
Two years??? Maybe for Lochte due to his actions both during the night in question and the subsequent few days. Even that would be the upper limit of what might seem reasonable to me. Six months seems adequate for the rest. It’s long enough to miss some big meets, but still leaves the window open for redemption and return.
These guys deserve to be held accountable, but two years would be extremely harsh for something with only indirect impact to the sport (i.e. no doping, result-fixing, etc). How long does an average world-class swimming career last in the first place?
Make no mistake – the overreaction of the IOC, the USOC (and therefore USA Swimming) has nothing to do with Lochte and company and everything to do with the USOC’s singular focus on its LA 2024 bid and staying in good favor with the IOC. Looks for a sanction that far outweighs the actions to make sure the old men at the IOC know that the USOC thinks they’re REAL important.
The IOC doesn’t give a rip about Russian state sponsored doping, but a couple of drunks lie about a night out and make the host look bad … Watch out!
I wish I could upvote this 10 times. If only the acronym agencies could spend 10 percent of their time working on behalf of athletes and not themselves.