STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Ryan Lochte is set to return to competition next week, fresh off the end of a 14-month suspension for receiving an intravenous injection.
The 12-time Olympic medalist will compete in the U.S. national championships at Stanford, which run Wednesday 31-Aug. 4. Lochte is entered in six events, starting with the 100-meter freestyle on Wednesday.
His other events are the 200 and 400 individual medleys, 200 free, 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly.
He is aiming to make a fifth Olympics next year in Tokyo.
Lochte served the ban after posting a photo of him receiving a vitamin injection on Instagram in May 2018, triggering a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigation that found the swimmer didn’t take a banned substance. Intravenous injections, however, are allowed only if an athlete has been granted an exemption from USADA. Lochte did not have such an exemption.
Lochte’s suspension kept him from competing at U.S. nationals last summer, when swimmers qualified for the world championships currently being held in South Korea.
Last fall, his attorney said Lochte underwent counseling for alcohol use.
The 34-year-old swimmer has competed sparingly since the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he claimed he was robbed at gunpoint at a gas station. Rio police said Lochte’s robbery story was false. Charges of “falsely communicating a crime to authorities” were eventually dropped by a Brazilian court. The incident resulted in a 10-month suspension from USA Swimming.
Since Rio, Lochte has gotten married, had two children and his wife is expecting a third. He’s also appeared on the TV reality show “Celebrity Big Brother.”
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