Swimmer Lochte gets one-year ban for vitamin injection
Ryan Lochte posted a photo for the world to see, and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency noticed.
It got him suspended again.
The longtime U.S. swimming star has been banned from competition until July 2019, which means the 12time Olympic medalist cannot compete as planned in the national championships that start this week in California. Lochte will also be ineligible for other top meets, including the Pan Pacific Championships later this year and next year’s world championships.
“This is devastating,” Lochte said.
He did not take a banned substance. But he got an intravenous injection of vitamins in May and since it exceeded 100 milliliters, no matter what was involved, he broke anti-doping rules. The 14-month ban, retroactive to May 24 and announced Monday by USADA, is his second in less than two years following his 10-month suspension for his behavior during a drunken incident that created widespread scorn at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
“A rule is a rule and I accept that there is a technical violation,” Lochte said. “I am hopeful other athletes will learn from my mistake and be mindful of this rule, as well as others.”
Lochte said he took the IV because both his wife and his son were ill and had recently visited hospitals, and that he didn’t want to get sick as well.
NFL
SPARANO DIED OF HEART DISEASE >> A county medical examiner said Minnesota Vikings offensive line coach Tony Sparano died of heart disease. The Hennepin County medical examiner’s office said that the 56-year-old Sparano died of arteriosclerotic heart disease, or hardening of the arteries. The manner of death is listed as natural.
Sparano died Sunday in Eden Prairie, a Minneapolis suburb. He had been the Vikings’ offensive line coach since 2016.
Sparano began his NFL coaching career in 1999 and had stints as a head coach with the Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders. BROWNS’ GORDON MISSING CAMP >> Days before opening training camp, the Cleveland Browns learned troubled wide reciever Josh Gordon will be missing again. For how long remains unclear. Gordon, who has been suspended numerous times during the past six years by the NFL for drug violations, said on Twitter that he won’t be with the team for the start of camp as he continues to recover from addictions that have derailed his once-promising career. JOHNSON RETURNS TO CARDINALS >> David Johnson is back in the fold with the Arizona Cardinals. The question about whether the dynamic running back would continue his holdout was answered in a hurry when he was among the players returning from injuries to show up for the early portion of training camp.
Johnson, who figures to be the centerpiece of the Arizona offense under new coach Steve Wilks, did not take part in the team’s mandatory minicamp in a contract dispute. But he reported Sunday and was in Monday’s first workouts.
NBA
NOWITZKI SIGNS WITH MAVS >> Dirk Nowitzki is officially signed for a record 21st season with the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks announced that they had resigned the 13-time All-Star. That was their plan when they declined a team option on Nowitzki’s contract at the start of free agency
to create more room under the salary cap before signing DeAndre Jordan.
Golf
FURYK NON-COMMITAL ABOUT TIGER TO RYDER CUP >> Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk says it was fun to watch Tiger Woods contend at the British Open and briefly take the lead in the final round. Whether that means Woods is a lock for the U.S. team is still to be determined.
“I’m going to handle him the way I do everyone else,” Furyk said Monday before boarding a flight for the Canadian Open. “I’ll ask my top eight guys. The way he’s playing, he might be one of them. I’ll ask the vice captains, collectively, and I think we’ll do the best we can to round out the team. We want the guys playing the best.”
Woods moved from No. 31 to No. 20 in the Ryder Cup standings with two tournaments remaining before the top eight qualify for the Sept. 28-30 matches in Paris. Woods already has been appointed an assistant captain, just as he was at Hazeltine two years ago. He has hinted at being a playing assistant. MERRITT WINS PGA TOURNAMENT >> Troy Merritt shot a 5-under 67 to win the raindelayed Barbasol Championship by one stroke. He led or shared the lead after each round. This was his second career PGA Tour victory and came with a spot in the PGA Championship at Bellerive in St. Louis.
College football
OHIO STATE FIRES RECEIVERS COACH >> Ohio State has fired receivers coach Zach Smith, who was charged last week with misdemeanor criminal trespass after a dispute with his exwife.
IOWA PLAYER THOUGHT HE WAS IN AN UBER >> A University of Iowa football player faces a public intoxication charge after police say he drunkenly mistook a police car for an Uber. University police say 22-yearold Brady Reiff was arrested in Iowa City early Saturday. According to police, Reiff tried to open the doors of the parked cruiser. When an officer asked what he was doing, Reiff said he was looking for a ride. When the officer asked whether Reiff thought he was an Uber driver, Reiff replied, “Yes.”
WNBA
LEAGUE SUSPENDS TAURASI >> The WNBA has suspended Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi one game without pay after she received her seventh technical foul of the season. The suspension came after Taurasi received two technical fouls and was ejected for arguing a call in the second quarter of Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Lynx. She will
serve the suspension when the Mercury host the Chicago Sky on Thursday. DALLAS, WASHINGTON DEAL >> The Dallas Wings and Washington Mystics have exchanged backup guards, with Tayler Hill and a second-round pick in next year’s draft going to Dallas for Aerial Powers.
Also
USOC TRYING TO REMOVE ITSELF AS GYMNASTIC DEFENDANT >> The U.S. Olympic Committee is trying to remove itself as a defendant in lawsuits by gold medalists McKayla Maroney, Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman, three of the gymnasts who sued the federation and others for their roles in the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal.
In court papers filed Friday, the USOC acknowledges it is “appropriately” part of “discussions concerning moral and social responsibility for sexual abuse, including legitimate questions about what could have been done to recognize and stop Nassar’s abuse.”
But, the motions say, there are no legal grounds to sue the USOC because Nassar never worked for the federation, nor were Nassar’s crimes foreseeable by the USOC.
USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky lauded the fortitude of the victims
and reiterated some of his group’s efforts in response to the scandal the opening of the U.S. Center for SafeSport and an investigation into what the USOC knew about the crimes and how it reacted.
FEDERER WITHDRAWS >> Roger Federer withdrew from the Rogers Cup in Toronto next month in order to be in peak condition for the U.S. Open. Federer is a two-time champion at the Rogers Cup, which alternates between Toronto and Montreal. He’s won twice in Toronto and was runner-up last year in Montreal.
ACC STANDOUT DIES >> Barbara Kennedy-Dixon, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s all-time scoring and rebounding leader and a longtime Clemson administrator after her playing days there, has died. She was 58. Kennedy-Dixon played for Clemson from 1978-82 and left with ACC career record with 3,113 points and 1,252 rebounds. She also holds ACC single-season records for points (908), points per game (29.3), field goals made (392), field goal attempts (760), rebounds (400) and rebounds per game (12.9) all during the 1981-82 season. ESPINOZA OUT AT DEL MAR >> Hall of Fame jockey Victor Espinoza will miss the rest of Del Mar’s summer meet after he fractured a vertebra in his neck during a training accident.