US Swimmers robbed at gunpoint in Rio

[Gunnar]

http://summergames.ap.org/article/2-lochte-teammates-robbery-probe-pulled-plane

The official says that swimmers Conger and Bentz, who were pulled off a plane going back to the United States late Wednesday, told police that the robbery story had been fabricated.

"mental make up"

When I read that, I couldnt tell if they meant he had the brain of a chimp or it was that he was too nice a guy to make up stuff like that.

What ever happens, its a lot kerfuffle over national pride, Brazil's, not ours.

Maybe they will dig up John McCain's one night stand again.

Actually, making false allegations of a crime is a crime in Brazil. Not sure if it is in the US. Plus, smearing a country whose guest you are is more than poor style.

If this had happened the other way around (e.g Brazilian athletes claiming to have been assaulted by US police because they were black) and made international headlines, would you have dismissed this so easily ?

[spuwho]

http://summergames.ap.org/article/2-lochte-teammates-robbery-probe-pulled-plane

The official says that swimmers Conger and Bentz, who were pulled off a plane going back to the United States late Wednesday, told police that the robbery story had been fabricated.

"mental make up"

When I read that, I couldnt tell if they meant he had the brain of a chimp or it was that he was too nice a guy to make up stuff like that.

What ever happens, its a lot kerfuffle over national pride, Brazil's, not ours.

Maybe they will dig up John McCain's one night stand again.

Actually, making false allegations of a crime is a crime in Brazil. Not sure if it is in the US. Plus, smearing a country whose guest you are is more than poor style.

If this had happened the other way around (e.g Brazilian athletes claiming to have been assaulted by US police because they were black) and made international headlines, would you have dismissed this so easily ?

Its clear something happened.

Lochte has lawyered up and not making any more statements.

Its possible they got pinched with their pants off and very drunk at the "French Reception House" and the robbery was a cover story for their missing dough.

I agree, smearing your host (if true) is poor form.

Dismissed a Brazilian accusation that police harassed them regardless of color? At the LA Games in 1984, yes.  Today? No way, the way things are today, I would have expected it.

Remember that Rio beat Chicago for this years Olympics. This year is a record for homicides in Chicago. Do you think anyone would have mentioned it had the games been in Chicago?

[funwithteeth]

Indictments!

http://www.espn.com/olympics/swimming/story/_/id/17340868/2016-rio-olympics-us-swimmers-ryan-lochte-jimmy-feigen-indicted-giving-false-reporting

[spuwho]

Indictments!

http://www.espn.com/olympics/swimming/story/_/id/17340868/2016-rio-olympics-us-swimmers-ryan-lochte-jimmy-feigen-indicted-giving-false-reporting

Ok, so now the next question. Why would you trash the head at a run down gas station?

[funwithteeth]

Alcohol + plus coming from a privileged background where you've probably gotten away with criminal mischief before.

[Kerry]

Alcohol + plus coming from a privileged background where you've probably gotten away with criminal mischief before.

That is my guess as well.  Time to man-up, admit your mistake, apologize to the people of Brazil, offer to do some community service, pay whatever fine gets handed down, and then move on with your life.  Oh, and you should probably quit drinking.

[finehoe]

Ryan Lochte represents a special category of obnoxious American 'bro'

Ryan Lochte is the dumbest bell that ever rang. The 32-year-old swimmer is so landlocked in juvenility that he pulled an all-nighter with guys young enough to call him uncle. His story to NBC's Billy "what-are-you-wearing" Bush had the quality of a kid exaggerating the size of a fish, and notice how he was the hero of every detail. That was always the most dubious, implausible part.

There is a special category of obnoxious American "bro" that Lochte represents, in his T-shirt and jeans and expensive suede footwear, which he showed off on social media that night at the party along with the price tag. "We're 6k deep here," he captioned it. Is there anything worse, in any country, than a bunch of entitled young drunks who break the furniture and pee on a wall? There is no translator needed for that one, no cultural norm that excuses it. If I had been working at that Brazilian gas station, I might have pulled a gun on them, too.

Jack Conger is 21. Gunnar Bentz is 20. James Feigen is 26. What a leader of young men Lochte is. You can see the bathroom door appear to burst out of its wooden frame on the security video, presumably when one of those oafs couldn't open it and decided to kick it.

Look, having a gun drawn on you in the small hours was no doubt unnerving and an overreaction by the security guard. It's even remotely possible that Lochte really did interpret the demand for cash as a "robbery" of sorts. But to do so, he had to be so impervious to his own odious punk behavior — and his view of that gas station had to be so low — that he didn't think the vandalizing was worth anything. He must have thought Ryan Lochte's pee was gold dust.

Inherent in all of Lochte's statements in this controversy is a lack of respect. You suspect that is what drew such ire from Brazilian authorities, who made a massive public display out of jerking Conger and Bentz off a plane and detaining them for questioning and recommended charges against Lochte and Feigen. Lochte has played a trivial, frivolous game with the issue of Brazilian police ineffectualness and corruption. Two things are going on here: Lochte's self-promoting prevarications and the sensitivity of Rio authorities, who have been portrayed as incapable of keeping athletes safe amid other Olympic breakdowns.

There have been a lot of genuine robberies of Olympic athletes and officials. A New Zealand athlete was kidnapped by fake police and driven to ATMs. Two Australian coaches were robbed at knifepoint on Ipanema Beach. After one of their athletes was robbed at gunpoint Tuesday morning, British track and field officials warned athletes that it is not worth the risk of going out, "given the current climate in Rio."

The police need to show that fears are overstated and these Games are secure — though they are not, particularly — and the stupid Americans offered them something with which to save face. Fernando Veloso, the Civil Police chief, said that Lochte had "stained" the city by inventing a crime that didn't happen.

Lochte's conceit intersected with a delicate political issue, and it made a perfect storm. His claim to NBC that men posing as police pulled over the taxi and he heroically resisted the robbers with a gun pressed to his forehead was an especially ludicrous detail — and the very thing that drew the attention of authorities, who know full well that anyone who defies a bandit in Rio gets shot on the spot, and they don't leave you with your cellphone.

Equal to his disrespect of the gas station owner and the police is Lochte's disrespect to his fellow swimmers. First he portrayed his U.S. teammates as dropping to the ground while "I refused," as if he alone had the temerity to remain standing. Yeah, right. This is a guy who apparently lied to his own mother. Then he flew home, leaving the younger swimmers to deal with the fallout. And when back in the United States, he made moronic postings on social media, deaf to the tension they were undergoing while detained in Rio, their passports seized.

The main quality Lochte has shown in all of this, apart from asininity, is obliviousness. First he tweeted about his hair, which he had dyed blue before the Games. Then on Thursday morning, even as Conger and Bentz were in a police station and authorities were mulling potential charges, he posted an idiotic video of himself. It was a distortion-lensed, cartoonish video of him babbling at his friend and fellow American swimmer Elizabeth Beisel. Lochte eventually deleted it. Which was too bad because it was a perfect portrait of a halfwit.

Lochte's done as a public figure, of course. Which is probably the most effective form of justice for someone who apparently so craves attention. Oblivion is what he deserves.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/ryan-lochte-a-champion-swimmer-caught-in-a-riptide-of-self-absorption/2016/08/18/673d9bdc-6540-11e6-96c0-37533479f3f5_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_jenkins-855pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

[Snufflee]

This BBC Article like the WaPo article really brings Mr. Lochte's antics and stupidity to light.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37129448

[spuwho]

Lochte just formally apologized publicly right after the 2 remaining swimmers arrived in Miami.

But those 2 had to be escorted through the Rio airport by security due to the raucous jeering from the crowds.

Feigen had to pay $11k to a local charity.

[Kerry]

"There is a special category of obnoxious American "bro" that Lochte represents"

I felt the same way a few years ago when two members of the Harlem Globetrotters urinated on the Austria National Library while participating in The Amazing Race because the "couldn't hold it any longer", when they could have just gone inside and used the men's room.  I was embarrassed for America with that one.

[funwithteeth]

Yes, no one from the Washington Generals would ever have behaved in such a fashion.

[Adam White]

Yes, no one from the Washington Generals would ever have behaved in such a fashion.

LOL.

[Adam White]

Interesting. Apparently, the fact that this story ever broke in the first place is pretty much down to chance. I guess it shows why you shouldn't lie to your mother!

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/rio-olympics-2016-ryan-lochtes-174223380.html

The whole thing has been bizarre, but the discovery of his story is almost equally as unbelievable. Ben Way, the reporter who initially discovered and broke Lochte's story, did so completely on accident, only after a chance encounter with Lochte's mother, Ileana.

[finehoe]

Speedo terminates sponsorship with Ryan Lochte

Swimsuit and apparel manufacturer Speedo, the leading brand in the industry in America, has terminated its sponsorship of Ryan Lochte.

Speedo sent out a statement Monday morning announcing that it has parted ways with Lochte. The one-paragraph statement, in its entirety:

"Speedo USA today announces the decision to end its sponsorship of Ryan Lochte. As part of this decision, 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. 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 and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience"



Losing Speedo as a sponsor is a significant blow for Ryan Lochte. (AP)

This is the first known business repercussion for Lochte after his involvement in the widely publicized incident in Rio de Janeiro the night after the swimming portion of the Olympic Games ended.

Lochte claimed he was robbed by a fake policeman who held a gun to his head, sparking an international firestorm, but later admitted to an "over-exaggeration" of events that occurred in the company of fellow American swimmers Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen. Lochte and Feigen were charged with filing a false report with police; Bentz and Conger were detained for 24 hours as witnesses; and the U.S. Olympic Committee ultimately issued an apology for the affair, which overshadowed much of the second week of the Olympics.

Losing Speedo as a sponsor is a significant blow for Lochte. Swimming apparel manufacturers are a major element of the sponsorship money available to professional swimmers, who can otherwise struggle to find enough endorsement revenue to make swimming a full-time job.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/speedo-terminates-sponsorship-with-ryan-lochte-161903695.html

[spuwho]

Speedo terminates sponsorship with Ryan Lochte

Swimsuit and apparel manufacturer Speedo, the leading brand in the industry in America, has terminated its sponsorship of Ryan Lochte.

Speedo sent out a statement Monday morning announcing that it has parted ways with Lochte. The one-paragraph statement, in its entirety:

"Speedo USA today announces the decision to end its sponsorship of Ryan Lochte. As part of this decision, 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. 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 and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience"



Losing Speedo as a sponsor is a significant blow for Ryan Lochte. (AP)

This is the first known business repercussion for Lochte after his involvement in the widely publicized incident in Rio de Janeiro the night after the swimming portion of the Olympic Games ended.

Lochte claimed he was robbed by a fake policeman who held a gun to his head, sparking an international firestorm, but later admitted to an "over-exaggeration" of events that occurred in the company of fellow American swimmers Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen. Lochte and Feigen were charged with filing a false report with police; Bentz and Conger were detained for 24 hours as witnesses; and the U.S. Olympic Committee ultimately issued an apology for the affair, which overshadowed much of the second week of the Olympics.

Losing Speedo as a sponsor is a significant blow for Lochte. Swimming apparel manufacturers are a major element of the sponsorship money available to professional swimmers, who can otherwise struggle to find enough endorsement revenue to make swimming a full-time job.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/speedo-terminates-sponsorship-with-ryan-lochte-161903695.html

In other words, if he wants to compete in another Olympics (like he said last week), he will have to find his own way.

I am guessing he will take the Speedo announcement as some kind of personal dare and will still want to try to compete in 4 years.

Not impossible, but he will need a benefactor to help cover his training expenses. I wonder how mom feels about that now?

Phelps fell down after one of his Olympics and lost endorsements and still came back, so its certainly possible for Lochte.