Speedo USA becomes the first major sponsor to drop Lochte

Speedo USA announced Monday morning that it will sever ties with the American swimmer and contribute a $50,000 portion of his fees to charity Save The Children’s Brazil operation, according to Associated Press. However, even though the swimmer may be embattled right now, Jonathan Bernstein said that this does not mean that it is all over for the other man.

Lochte issued a brief statement through his public relations firm addressing his long relationship with Speedo.

Japanese mattress maker Airweave, which last week had said it would stand by Lochte, on Monday said it had decided it would not renew the endorsement, which had been made for the Rio 2016 Olympic games.

The swimwear company announced Monday it dropped the US swimmer following the events that transpired in Rio.

While Lochte’s other sponsors have yet to reach a final decision on whether to continue their association with the athlete, it would be no surprise if they chose to follow Speedo’s lead. Authorities in Brazil denied any robbery took place. Video surveillance emerged showing the athletes getting into a confrontation with armed security guards over alleged vandalism at the gas station when their taxi pulled over to let them use the restroom. The incident caused a furor in Rio, where street crime was a major issue heading into the games. While there have been conflicting versions over whether the guards pulled their weapons on the swimmers, Lochte conceded that his behavior led to the confrontation, which resulted in the swimmers paying some $50 in USA and Brazilian currency before they were allowed to leave. As he points out, Ryan Lochte is not the first athlete to find himself in hot water and there have certainly been other athletes who have done much more embarrassing things.

Both the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming have indicated that Lochte will be punished, perhaps endangering the 32-year-old’s hopes of competing in a fifth Olympics at Tokyo in 2020.

On Friday, he apologized in a statement, saying he should have been “more careful and candid” from the get-go.

In Rio, he swam in two events, winning a gold medal in the 4×200 metres freestyle relay along with team-mate Jack Conger. “I’m human. I made a mistake and I definitely learned from this”, Lochte said in an interview on the Today show.