Report: Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte suspended for 10 months

(Image credit: Valerie Macon/AFP/Getty Images)

published 7 September 2016

The International Olympic Committee, the United States Olympic Committee, and USA Swimming suspended Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte for 10 months and banned him from the 2017 world championship meet, following an incident during the Rio Olympics, a source told USA Today Sports on Wednesday.

The source said his suspension is longer than that of the other three U.S. swimmers who were with him during a confrontation at a Rio gas station; Lochte says he was detained at gunpoint and forced to pay a bribe in order to leave, but admitted he exaggerated some of the details. Authorities in Rio say they plan to charge Lochte with filing a false police report, but his attorneys say they have no case.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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