How much could Ryan Lochte's Rio "robbery" actually cost him?
RIO DE JANEIRO -- Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte apologized Friday for what he did in Rio that has American tabloids calling him “The Ugly American” and “The Lochte-mess Monster.”
“I want to apologize for my behavior last weekend -- for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events,” he said in a statement.
Brazilian authorities say Lochte concocted the story to cover up what actually happened at a gas station.
The security camera footage shows the athletes coming down a corridor. One of them tears a poster off a wall, and at some point they make their way back to the bathrooms where police say they vandalized one of the stalls.
Swimmer Jimmy Feigen had to donate $10,000 to a Brazilian charity in order to leave Rio. But the incident may endup costing Lochte millions.
“Stupid is the operative word,” said USA Today sports columnist Nancy Armour. She believes Lochte will likely lose sponsors.
“There is a very short shelf life for Olympic athletes. He just fell off that shelf,” Armour explained. “Do I want to give my money to Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky? Do I want to give it to Ryan Lochte? That is really no longer a choice.”
Three of Lochte’s sponsors -- Speedo, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Airweave -- tell CBS News they are reviewing the situation. Lochte has hired a PR firm to deal with the fallout of what could have simply been about breaking a bathroom door.
“Instead it’s become this international
incident. It’s embarrassing for the USOC, it’s embarrassing for his three
teammates. It became this mess when it didn’t need to be this way.”
The United States Olympic Committee has
apologized to the people of Brazil and says what these swimmers did was
“unacceptable.”
With just two days left in the Rio games, they now want to focus on gold medals -- not gas station bathrooms.
