Ryan Lochte 'gets ten-month ban for false robbery claim'

American swimmer Ryan Lochte has been handed a ten-month ban over a false robbery claim he made during the Olympics, according to reports this morning.

In an episode that dominated headlines during the Rio Games, the 32-year-old swimmer claimed he had been robbed at gunpoint at a petrol station.

But his story unravelled when CCTV footage appeared to show that he and three team-mates had in fact vandalised a toilet and the "robbers" were security guards demanding compensation for the damage.

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The story infuriated the hosts of the Rio Games who believed it portrayed their city as crime ridden. It led to the Olympic gold medallist being charged by Brazilian police with filing a false robbery report.

Lochte denied lying about the episode but admitted that "he left details out". He has since apologised for his actions. "I was intoxicated," he said last month. "I was immature and I made a stupid mistake. I'm human and I'm just really sorry."

Christine Brennan of USA Today says that the ten-month ban "seems too short for Lochte's selfish, boorish, immature behaviour" but points out that it means the swimmer "will not be able to return to a world championships until 2019, when he will be 35 years old".

She adds that the ban "will be felt longer than you think" and will "forever be part of his once-so-illustrious resume". He has lost four major sponsors since the incident, including the swimwear manufacturer Speedo.

Lochte told TMZ, which broke the story of the ban, that he "had no comment" on the suspension, or on whether he was a "sacrificial lamb". He did, though, say he was "very nervous" about his forthcoming appearance on the television series Dancing with the Stars.

Ryan Lochte charged by Rio police over robbery claims

26 August

Brazilian police have asked prosecutors to file charges against US swimmer Ryan Lochte for falsely reporting a crime.

It follows an altercation on 14 August during the Rio Olympics in which Lochte, in the company of three other swimmers, allegedly vandalised a petrol station while drunk. Police say Lochte gave false statements about events.

The sportsman originally told US TV network NBC the group had been robbed at gunpoint after their taxi was pulled over. However, surveillance video from the station discredits his version of events.

Lochte left Brazil a day after the incident, but could be tried in absentia. The maximum penalty for falsely filing a crime report is 18 months in prison, reports The Guardian. Alternatively, the judge could impose a fine.

The charges also raise questions about the swimmer's future. He is planning to take time off from the sport but wants to return to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, says the newspaper.

Since the incident, Lochte has been dropped by four major sponsors, including Ralph Lauren and Speedo - but a cough drops company has signed him to appear in ads alongside the slogan: "Forgiving on your throat". There are also reports he could appear on the new season of Dancing With the Stars, the US version of Strictly Come Dancing.

He also told a reporter for celebrity gossip website TMZ that the experience had changed him.

Asked about his opinion on excessive drinking, Lochte said: "It's definitely something that I'm going to have to be more responsible about. Everything that happened in Rio, I'm going to learn from."

Although Lochte only won one gold medal at Rio, he has a total of six golds and was the "breakout star" of London 2012, after which he starred in the short-lived reality TV series, What Would Ryan Lochte Do?.

Ryan Lochte loses sponsors after Rio robbery claims

23 August

US Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte has been dumped by four major sponsors in the wake of the fake armed robbery claims he made during the Rio Games.

Swimwear manufacturer Speedo, fashion label Ralph Lauren, skincare firm Syneron-Candela and Japanese mattress-maker Airweave have all severed ties with the swimming star in the past 24 hours.

"We cannot condone behaviour that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for," Speedo said. It has pledged to donate a $50,000 portion of Lochte's sponsorship fee to Save the Children's Brazilian operation.

Lochte, a 12-time Olympic gold medalist, claimed he and three of his team-mates were pulled over while in a taxi and robbed by people pretending to be police officers. However, police in Rio later said the men had damaged a petrol-station toilet and had been made to pay $50 to resolve the matter by an armed security guard.

Lochte apologised for not being "more careful and candid" in how he described the events, but appeared to blame other factors for the situation.

"It's traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country - with a language barrier - and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave," he said. "But regardless of the behaviour of anyone else that night, I should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself and for that am sorry to my team-mates, my fans, my fellow competitors, my sponsors and the hosts of this great event."

US swimmers' Rio robbery tale falls apart

19 August

US swimmers Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger have been released by Brazilian authorities and allowed to return to the United States after it emerged they had lied about being robbed.

The pair were removed from their flight to the US yesterday and detained for questioning after their story that they and team-mates Ryan Lochte and James Feigen had been robbed at gunpoint in the early hours of Sunday began to fall apart.

Rio's civil police head Fernando Veloso rejected the group's account of events during a media briefing, citing video evidence of the four swimmers at a petrol station in the early hours of the morning.

"No robbery was committed against these athletes. They were not victims of the crimes they claimed," he said.

According to Veloso, the athletes "damaged a gas station bathroom early Sunday morning and were involved in a confrontation with armed security before paying about $50 to resolve the matter".

Police said Bentz and Conger had given statements admitting they had not been victims of a robbery and that Lochte's account was not true.

Lochte in particular has come under heavy criticism from a number of media outlets around the world.

In a column in the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper, columnist Guga Chacra said it was a case of a "douchebag and his three drunken friends creating havoc at a gas station and then telling the world that they were robbed".

US newspapers have been no kinder. "There is a special category of obnoxious American 'bro' that Lochte represents, in his T-shirt and jeans and expensive suede footwear, which he showed off on Instagram that night at the party along with the price tag," says the Washington Post.

"'We're 6k deep here,' he captioned it. Is there anything worse, in any country, than a bunch of entitled young drunks who break the furniture and pee on a wall?"

The San Francisco Chronicle said simply: "It doesn't matter what else Lochte has done in his Olympic career. This cemented his legacy: most embarrassing Olympic athlete."

Rio Olympics: GB athlete robbed, US swimmers removed from flight

18 August

A British athlete has reportedly been robbed at gunpoint after returning back to the Olympic village from a night out in Rio de Janeiro in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

"Details at this stage are sketchy," The Guardian says, "but it is understood the person in question was in shock but was not seriously hurt." The athlete has so far not been named.

The British Olympic team confirmed that an "incident of theft" had occurred, but that everyone was "safe and well".

The newspaper says the robbery has caused "deep shock" among British athletes and has led to an unprecedented warning that leaving the accommodation in the Olympic village is "not worth the risk".

Athletes were also sent an official letter advising them against taking local taxis and wearing their Team GB kits in the city. They were told that they were all required to attend a mandatory security briefing.

"You MUST inform a member of team management if you are leaving the village and planning on staying out overnight – please do this BEFORE you leave," the letter reportedly read.

Meanwhile, two US swimmers who claim to have also been robbed at gunpoint in Rio were escorted off a plane home and detained for questioning by police. The two men, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, were with teammates Ryan Lochte and James Feigen when they say they were robbed.

"But accounts of what happened to the swimmers have been confusing from the beginning," the BBC reports, as there appear to be numerous inconsistencies in their initial report.

"A police official said that Mr Lochte and Mr Feigen [were] unable to give basic details and contradicted each other's stories," the broadcaster adds.

Lochte has already left the country, but his three teammates have had to surrender their passports until the police investigation has concluded.

Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte 'robbed at gunpoint' in Rio

15 August

Olympic gold medallist Ryan Lochte has confirmed he was robbed at gunpoint in Rio after Games organisers initially denied the story.

The US swimmer claimed he was returning to the Olympic village in a taxi with three team-mates in the early hours of Sunday when the incident took place.

He told NBC's Today programme: "We got pulled over, in the taxi, and these guys came out with a badge, a police badge, no lights, no nothing just a police badge and they pulled us over.

"They pulled out their guns. They told the other swimmers to get down on the ground. They got down on the ground. I refused, I was like, 'We didn't do anything wrong, so – I'm not getting down on the ground.'

"And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, 'Get down,' and I put my hands up, I was like, 'Whatever.' He took our money, he took my wallet – he left my cellphone, he left my credentials."

The story was initially denied by the US Olympic Committee (USOC), which later backtracked after Lochte's mother confirmed the story.

Brazilian police have now opened an investigation into the incident, says The Guardian, adding that crime has been a "major concern" for the Games.

Incidents include Australian Paralympians having their bicycles stolen while training, Spanish sailors robbed at gunpoint, a shooting competitor having guns stolen, a judo wrestler involved in a confrontation on Copacabana beach and a man shot dead while trying to rob the chief of security at the opening ceremony.

Lochte now holds 12 Olympic medals – six gold, three silver and three bronze – making him the second-equal greatest swimmer of the modern Games behind countryman Michael Phelps.