Blame It On Rio

[Scooter]

Oh I absolutely reserve judgment, except that I do see motivation for them to lie if their behaviour caused them to pick a fight with the wrong people. Not reporting it at the very least to the USOC when they got back to the compound seems incredibly odd to me.

[Lord Jim]

Or maybe not:

Hmm...

So maybe they made this story up in order to try to cover up a drunken fist fight with a gas station security guard, which would have been much more damaging from a PR standpoint then a robbery...

If that's true, then as usual, the cover-up is even worse then the underlying deed...

If it becomes proven that Lochte and his compadres cooked up this story, he can kiss his endorsement agreements and personal appearance fees goodbye...

[oldr_n_wsr]

“And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, ‘Get down,’ and I put my hands up. I was like, 'whatever.'”

I have had a cocked gun pointed at me. My response was NOT "whatever".

[Big RR]

That could be the case, but I think the government would have broadcast the tape if it clearly showed such a fight. Likewise, I am surprised the press didn't traclk down the cab driver or guards and offer big bucks for the story.

And Jim, even if it was a fight like that, a good spin doctor could probably redeem them for fighting back against a guard(s) that was threatening them. All might not be lost (but the details are in the tape).

oldr--you probably weren't drunk then.

[Scooter]

Here is a story with more detail.

The part that didn't make sense to me, whether they were telling the truth or lying, is why Lochte would have called his mother to tell her about it, but not anyone else? If they really were robbed, why not report it to USOC officials? ("we might have gotten in trouble" makes no sense) If it was just a cover story, why call your mother about it?

I wonder if the answer is here:

According to the official, the gas station manager then arrived. Using a customer to translate, the manager asked the swimmers to pay for the broken door. After a discussion, they did pay him an unknown amount of money and then left.

If this version is true, Lochte may have handed all the cash he had on him to the manager and been left with little or nothing to get him through his last days in Rio. Needs to call home to get mom to get some money to him, but needs a good story to explain why, and invents a robbery.

[Big RR]

Scooter--that story makes sense; another is that they originally agreed not to report it to avoid trouble with the authorities like they are having now. Often those who are victims of crimes may be prevented from leaving by some countries for extended periods of time, and there is good reason not to trust the Brazilian government and their investigative process--they are hellbent on showing that the games are safe, to the benefit of all their people, and going off without a hitch. Given that as a backdrop, I may not report the crime either.

Lochte is still a kid and may have blurted it out to his mother when speaking with her, who then set the wheels in motion when she spoke with a reporter.

As for your suggestion that he needed money--he was leaving two days later and I sincerely doubt he carried all his cash on him when he went out at night (of course he is a kid, so who knows?). And he could have said he was pickpocketed or lost it rather than come up with the extended scenario when he spoke to his mother--a lot less detail to fabricate (and to upset her--thinking my kid had his wallet stolen by a pickpocket is a lot less of a concern than armed robbery); he clearly would have had enough time to make up the story before he called.

[Lord Jim]

Lochte is still a kid

He's 32...

[Big RR]

True, but he acts like a kid--training all that time stunts your emotional growth IMHO.

[RayThom]

There's more to this than meets the eye. I get a feeling that something hinky is in play here and does not bode well for US Seal Team 3.

I see over-privileged athletes flexing their muscle on the working class minority. I'm now kind of hoping that the incident is nothing but bullshit and their endorsement deals go down the toilet along with their accomplishments.

And if I'm wrong... never mind.

[rubato]

All you would have to do is look at their hands to see if they were in a fist fight. If it was much of a fight there would be evidence.


yrs,
rubato

[Big RR]

There is a video online which news services claims refutes their story, but I have not been able to find a copy of the entire video, only pieces of it and you have to rely on reporter's statements of the what it shows. As best I can see (watching pieces on a few sites), it shows them going into the building and out and then back to the cab. Someone then walks over to the cab and they come back out and at least one walks off camera with his hands up. There are other people around so it may not be a mugging, but then people are beaten in the streets of American cities while bystanders walk by minding their own business so who knows?

whole video, but this doesn't look all that good for their story.

And RayThom, they may be overprivileged athletes, but the pieces of the video I saw didn't make it look as if they were out raising hell or causing trouble.

[Lord Jim]

Security footage from the gas station obtained by the network in Brazil shows the four swimmers arriving after 6 a.m. and rushing into the building. After they exited, three red-shirted staffers peered into the hallway where the swimmers had just been.

Lochte and the others then attempted to get into the wrong taxi before finding the correct one nearby. At that point, an apparent employee of the station approaches them, they exit the car and follow him off camera. One of the swimmers briefly raises his hands.

Footage from another camera shows them in another area of the station. One has fallen onto his back and is helped up by a teammate. The four then sit on a curb and could be seen in animated conversation with a person out of view of the camera.

One of the swimmers appears to retrieve something from his pocket and hold it out. The video shows passers-by on the street and another employee walk casually into the area without showing much reaction to the situation.

The swimmers eventually stand up and walk out of the camera’s view.

In a separate story in the O Globo Rio newspaper, the gas station owner said that the swimmers vandalized his facility and urinated on it.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/ ... story.html

ETA:

I haven't seen the full tape either, but the portion I saw:

http://thebiglead.com/2016/08/18/ryan-l ... ity-video/

combined with the account of the LA Times reporter (who presumably has seen the entire tape) certainly doesn't remotely support the claim that there was some sort of "robbery" that took place...

[Big RR]

I'm surprised the whole tape hasn't been broadcast; I doubt it's that long.

[Lord Jim]

I listened to the Rio police press conference a little while ago...

Apparently one of the other swimmers who was there is backing the gas station owner's version of events...

[oldr_n_wsr]

oldr--you probably weren't drunk then.

No I wasn't, but I did have a large amount of cash on me (it was during my employment at the beer distributor in Bed Sty).
Suffice to say, he didn't get the money and I didn't get shot.

Scooters theory sounds the most likely.
He spent all his money at the bar or buying booze for the party or on girls (or wherever/whatever they were doing).
The bigger the lie, the more unbelievable. Or so it seems sometimes. Can't just say I got pickpocketed, too lame.

[Big RR]

Oldr--were you fairly young at the time? Now, I wouldn't risk my life for money (especially someone else's), but when I was younger and worked at the drive in theater the manager and I used to make the night deposit every night and I sat with a loaded 38 revolver in my lap in case we were robbed. All this and $1.75 an hour made a high school kid seem like a big deal.

[Gob]

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 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 Instagram 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'd been working at that Brazilian gas station, I might've pulled a gun on them, too.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/ri ... qwaux.html

[oldr_n_wsr]

Oldr--were you fairly young at the time? Now, I wouldn't risk my life for money (especially someone else's), but when I was younger and worked at the drive in theater the manager and I used to make the night deposit every night and I sat with a loaded 38 revolver in my lap in case we were robbed. All this and $1.75 an hour made a high school kid seem like a big deal.

Yes, it was back in my late teens early 20's. times change, I've changed. I remember thinking as it was going down, "how dare you pull a gun on me".

I remember the 77 NY city black out (my incident didn't happen during the black out). We had the doors down and we were selling only ice. Shotguns at the ready 12 gauge, pump action, chambered round, safety off. Alternating slug and buckshot rounds.
We were located on Lexington Ave, just off of Broadway where Gates ave cut into Broadway.
People tried ot break in to the truck leasing place next door to the beer distributor and they got into a bit of a gun fight. We went inside at that point.
Many of the shops/stores on Broadway burned that night. Looks like the theifs broke into a u-haul and took the trucks. They would back up through the gates (or pull down the gates with a chain) and just load up the trucks with stuff. They then lit the stores up and drove away.
Most never opened again. Sad as many of those shops were locally owned.

NYPD and FDNY had precincts right around the corner from us on Gates ave. Those guys were busy for days after that.

[Big RR]

Well everything is buzzing with Lochte's "apology" now, which could have been written by either presidential campaign; now acknowledgement of doing anything wrong, just apologizing that he was not clearer (and was perhaps misunderstood?). If he didn't ruin his endorsements already, this non apology should do the trick. I think he might have been able to begin digging himself out of the hole by being honest and admitting what he did, but he chose to go the opposite way. I don't know who is advising him (if anyone), but (s)e clearly di him no favors with this stunt.

I think the only smart thing he did was keep his mouth shut until his teammates left, although I'm not sue if Feigin (sp?) is still there.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Well, that ends the Lyin' Lochte aspect of the Games. Urinating in public? Guess the pool habits die hard.