WILD WEEK IN RIO
Big lies and green pools as the 2016 Summer Olympics come to a close.
U.S. swimmers dominated the news last week, but it wasn’t for adding to the dominant medal count. On Sunday, 12-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte said he and three other swimmers were pulled over in their taxi and robbed at gunpoint. Lochte said that their wallets were taken but not their cellphones or Olympic credentials. The news went viral, as the International Olympic Committee denied that a robbery had taken place and Brazilian police scrambled for details of yet another alleged embarrassment at the Rio Games. Days later, Lochte seemed to change his tune as the spotlight heated up and the other swimmers — Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen — seemed to disappear. Reporters and police claimed that their stories didn’t match up as suspicions began to build. On Tuesday, Lochte returned to the U.S., saying that swimmers didn’t tell the U.S. Olympic Committee about the robbery out of fear of being punished. But police said the swimmers were intoxicated. As the international incident appeared to balloon, a Brazilian judge ordered a search and seizure warrant for Lochte and Feigen as well as the confiscation of their passports. But the two were gone. On Wednesday night, Conger and Bentz were pulled off a plane bound for the U.S. and were told they couldn’t leave Brazil until they gave a statement to the police. On Thursday, a video was released showing the swimmers had vandalized a gas station. In the video, a security guard does pull out a gun and money is exchanged, but police said the guards were demanding money for the damaged property. The USOC issued an apology Thursday night, and Lochte apologized for failing to carefully explain the story. While that situation was handled, the IOC could barely explain why the pools had turned a murky green during competitions , with some blaming algae or copper oxidation. Officials finally came forth and said that 80 liters of hydrogen peroxide was put in the water, which counteracts chlorine’s ability to kill organisms. Also, reports surfaced that thousands of volunteers quit after working long hours with little food.