U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte, in the second part of an exclusive interview with TODAY’s Matt Lauer, describes the incident at a Rio gas station involving himself and three other Olympians’ confrontation with armed guards. He admits he “was upset,” but adds that “there was no reason for a gun to be pulled out.” He also says “I let my team down” and “I’m embarrassed for myself, my family” and especially his three teammates.
Speedo and Ralph Lauren have ended their sponsorship ties with swimmer Ryan Lochte after he lied about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio. CBS Sports’ Dana Jacobson has the latest.
The Rio Games are over, and we have learned a lot. We’ve learned that being a horse is the best job at the Olympics, that a butt-baring Irish bureaucrat is the biggest jerk at the Olympics, and that removing your clothes and dumping them on the scorers’ table is no way to lodge a complaint about a wrestling match. We’ve learned that Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian and that Ryan Lochte is the drunkest. But mostly we’ve confirmed something we already knew: The United States of America is really, really, really good at the Olympics.
Good doesn’t quite describe how good the U.S. is at the Olympics. Goooooooood sort of gets there, but not quite. For the second straight Summer Games, the U.S. led all countries in the overall medal count, winning 121 in total: 46 gold, 37 silver, and 38 bronze. (China ran a distant second with 70 total medals; Great Britain, with 67, came in third.) The U.S. has now led all nations in the medal count in every individual Summer Games since 1996. There has been a lot of talk this year about America’s decline in greatness. But it’s good to know there remains at least one endeavor at which the United States is inarguably the best in the world. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
But wait—is it possible we’re too good at the Olympics? Despite America’s sustained dominance in the pool, on the track, and on the various weird gymnastics apparatuses, the Rio Games were not a ratings bonanza for NBC. Over the past two weeks, according to Bloomberg, NBC pulled primetime ratings that were 17 percent worse than the ratings they got for the 2012 London Games. What’s more, viewership in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic dropped by 25 percent from London to Rio de Janeiro. The U.S. crushed it at the Olympics this year. America yawned and played Pokémon Go.
Read Slate
For Team USA it doesn’t get much better than this.
The Americans may not have made a ton of friends in Brazil, given their dust-ups with the law, and all that parading around with an index finger either raised in victory or pointed at other teams’ athletes for being dopers, while Team USA itself had 11 members who had previously tested positive for banned substances.
The medal races became an absolute blowout though—even more than The Wall Street Journal predicted. The U.S. won more medals (121) than it has at any Summer Games except 1984, when many of the Soviet countries boycotted.
Read Wall Street Journal
Veteran swimmer Ryan Lochte’s brush with Rio police has already hurt his appeal to sponsors – but for two lesser-known team mates, it means they may never get a chance to sign their first major deal.
Lochte has several major sponsors, including fashion houseRalph Lauren, which took down any reference to the gold medalist on its website on Friday, and swimwear company Speedo which has said it is following the situation.
But for team mates Gunnar Bentz, 20, and Jack Conger, 21, who are also embroiled in what social media has termed #LochteGate, going professional and scoring future business opportunities are now next to impossible, marketers say.
Read Fortune
Read also “What does the Ryan Lochte scandal mean for the future of U.S. men’s swimming?”
https://youtu.be/7boVIhF_LOY
“In this day and age, there’s one pretty important rule that anybody in the public eye should think about: Don’t lie,” said Joe Favorito, a sports marketing expert and professor at Columbia. “We live in a world where everything is going to be exposed. Brands are always looking for honest and authentic representatives because there’s so much competition. There are so many Olympic athletes who you can choose from. You don’t need any nonsense.”
Some of Rio’s champions share their breakfast choice, good luck charms, and winning mindset.
The International Olympic Committee has set up a disciplinary commission to investigate the incident involving Ryan Lochte and three of his U.S. swimming teammates at a Rio de Janeiro gas station.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams told The Associated Press the panel was formed Friday to look into the behavior of Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen.
Adams had no other immediate details.
IOC disciplinary commissions have the power to issue sanctions, but it is an entity separate from the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Swimming and FINA, the international governing body for swimming.
See ESPN
https://youtu.be/zoasm5DIr-A
