Speedo USA Drops Ryan Lochte's Sponsorship Amid Rio Scandal

Ryan Lochte is down a sponsor.

Speedo USA announced Monday that it is no longer backing the swimmer, a 12-time Olympic medalist. The decision came after Lochte apologized on NBC's Today for his "immature behavior" in Rio two weekends ago. "Speedo USA will donate a $50,000 portion of Lochte's fee to Save The Children, a global charity partner of Speedo USA's parent company, for children in Brazil," the company told E! News in a statement, adding, "While we have enjoyed a winning relationship with Ryan for over a decade and he has been an important member of the Speedo team, we cannot condone behavior that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for."

"We appreciate his many achievements," Speedo USA continued, "and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience." Lochte then issued a statement of his own, telling E! News, "I respect Speedo's decision and am grateful for the opportunities that our partnership has afforded me over the years. I am proud of the accomplishments that we have achieved together."

The swimmer's sponsorships were worth a reported $1 million annually, according to ESPN. Lochte needs those sponsorships in order to fund his training for the 2020 Games in Tokyo.

According to his website, his other sponsors include Airweave, Marriott and Ralph Lauren. Red flags were raised after Lochte's name and image were recently removed from Olympic endorser page on Ralph Lauren's website; E! News reached out to the company for comment.

Lochte is working with crisis manager Matthew Hiltzik to repair his public image (and salvage his other deals), but is it too little, too late? According to Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management and author of Manager's Guide to Crisis Management, "Behavior like this makes sponsors, or potential sponsors, seriously question their relationship with any athlete." But it's not necessarily over for Lochte. "You look at other athletes who have done, certainly in their case more embarrassing things, like Lance Armstrong or Tiger Woods, and they paid the price in sponsorships. Lochte has somewhat of a reputation for acting up already, so there's a crisis risk inherent always in sponsoring a celebrity or a celebrity athlete."


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