Ryan Lochte says he's become a 'better man' after suspension
The swimmer was suspended for 10 months after Rio de Janeiro incident.
— -- Ryan Lochte is speaking out now that his suspension from professional swimming following a highly-publicized incident at the 2016 Olympic games is coming to an end.
"It's been a long suspension but it's over," the 12-time Olympic medalist wrote in a caption on Instagram. "I've learned and became a better man from it.... now let's go."
Lochte, 32, posted this alongside a video compiling headlines from the past year. The video was set to NF's 2016 song, "Grindin.'"
It appears Lochte is already preparing for the 2020 games in Tokyo, as he used the hashtags #2020 and #2020isforyoucaiden in his caption.
If fans are wondering just what the Olympic swimmer was doing during his suspension, his social media accounts gave many clues.
Lochte and his fiancée Kayla Rae Reid, 25, welcomed their first child, a son named Caiden, last month. He shared the first photos of his baby boy on Instagram.
He also took to social media to share videos of his training.
In September, Lochte was suspended from swimming for 10 months, and was forced to miss the 2017 national and world swimming championships. He was also sentenced to perform 20 hours of community service.
During his suspension, the Olympic swimmer didn't receive his monthly stipend, and was barred from accessing U.S. Olympic Committee training centers and other facilities.
Lochte's sentence, along with punishments for three other U.S. swimmers, came after Lochte told NBC News’ Matt Lauer that he and his teammates were held up at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro after leaving a party during the Olympics.
The swimmer later apologized for “overexaggerating” the incident, which he initially called a robbery, claiming a man pointed a gun at his head in a local gas station and demanded money from him and teammates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen.Police in Rio said Lochte’s story was a fabrication, and that the swimmers were not robbed. Instead, police alleged that the swimmers vandalized the gas station's bathroom and were confronted by armed security guards, who were seeking money for the damage done.
Lochte later said that he “had too much to drink” that night, and appeared to acknowledge that he knew the armed guards were demanding money for the damage, not robbing them.