With Olympic swimmerRyan Lochtehaving been suspended from competitive swimming until summer 2019, the 33-year-old has no intention of wasting his newfound free time, his agent tells PEOPLE.
“Some people think it was foolish that he didn’t know this rule,” Lochte’s agent, Jeff Ostrow, tells PEOPLE. “Before yesterday, if you polled 10 swimmers, I bet you nine of them would have no idea they couldn’t do this.” (Speaking with ESPN, however, several other top swimmers said they were well aware of the restriction.)
While Lochte was not found to have been injected with a banned substance and was said to have been cooperative throughout the investigation, the agency took exception with the swimmer having received an IV injection “in a volume greater than 100 mL within a 12-hour period” without getting a special “Therapeutic Use Exemption.”
“This wasn’t like a childish thing, this was something that he was doing for his immune system and didn’t know it was on the list of things he couldn’t do,” Ostrow says. “He’s at a much different place than he was a few years ago and enjoying life and his family and he’s much more mature than he was… this is such a crazy fluke thing.”
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During apress conference on Monday, Lochte told reporters that he was unaware of the rule disallowing IV use and explained that he wouldn’t have done it — let alone post about it on Instagram — if he had known otherwise.
Lochte’s sponsors have so far been more understanding to the athlete than the USADA, asTYR Sport— a swimwear company that took on Lochte as a partner in 2017 — came to his defense and announcedthey would retain him during the suspension.
Though the ban is undoubtedly a “big setback,” Ostrow says Lochte will continue training over the next year to remain competition-ready come next July.
“It’s not ideal, but Ryan’s in incredible shape right now and he’ll be able to compete again in a year,” he says. “He’ll have to miss some significant stuff along the way, but I know Ryan better than anyone and I know how he is and this is going to be more fuel to the fire than we ever could have thrown on independently.”
Yet, Lochte has found a silver lining throughout all of this — he’ll get to spend even more time with his son,Caiden Zane, who he and his wife, Kayla Rae Reid, welcomed last June.
He’ll also be able to use some of his time to plan an upcoming party, as he and Kayla will be throwing a ceremony in California tocelebrate their marriage in January.
“He’s an incredible father, he loves being a father,” Ostrow says. “He’s enjoying being a husband. They’re having a wedding in September.”
“Ryan is the consummate competitor and nobody’s got more drive than that guy,” says Ostrow. “It’s unfortunate, but he’ll be at the top again and he’ll be back on the podium in Japan.”
After the fiasco of Rio de Janeiro, and now this most recent controversy, Ostrow says Lochte will be eager to end his Olympic career with a bang.
“People are looking for the comeback story from Rio,” he says, “when he comes back, he’s going to come back as good as he’s ever been, he’s going to shock the world.”
source: people.com
