Olympic-size lie
Lochte’s tale of robbery comes off as embarrassing bid for attention
RIO DE JANEIRO — Ryan Lochte has always been an attention hog. Now you can upgrade him to Olympic fabulist.
Lochte is a great athlete, but he has always been known as the best swimmer of his generation who is Not Michael Phelps. This status has set Lochte on a seemingly perpetual mission to siphon some American love away from his more famous and celebrated teammate.
Four years ago at the London Olympics, Lochte filled up his mouth with a starsand-stripes themed grill that covered his front teeth and guaranteed photo exposure. In
2013, Lochte briefly starred in his own reality TV show on the E! network.
And he was ready for the Rio Games. Lochte showed up at the Aquatics Center with his hair dyed a strange gray-blue color. Whenever a television camera was near, he was primed with sound bites.
All of that was and is mildly amusing and harmless.
You can’t say the same about the stunt Lochte pulled off here this week.
How can I say this nicely? Among the USA swimming community, Lochte is not known to be the most shrewd octopus in the garden. The past five or six days confirm that notion.
Lochte’s story sounded pretty dramatic last Sunday when he related to NBC a narrative about taking a taxi ride with some teammates and being robbed by fake Rio policemen. But the narrative fell apart over the last couple of days. The real Rio police conducted an investigation. They found video evidence that the fake cop holdup guy did not exist.
Still, the head of Rio’s civil police said he wanted no apology from Lochte and the swimmers.
“The apology should go to Rio residents who saw their city tainted by a fantasy version of facts,” said Fernando Veloso.
If Lochte issues such an apology, it will be from back in the States. He scrambled out of town as soon as people — including the media — began checking out the details of his story.
In so doing, Lochte bravely and courageously left behind the other three swimmers that were part of the non-held-up crew. The two youngest, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz, were hauled off a plane bound for the United States on Wednesday night for questioning. The U.S. Olympic Committee said late Thursday night that Conger and Bentz had departed Rio after meeting with the police and reclaiming passports. The fourth swimmer, James Feigen, submitted a “revised statement” on the incident and was hopeful that he would also be allowed to leave the country soon. The USOC also said it would consider “consequences” for the athletes at a later date. They had better be severe.
“There was no robbery,” Veloso said, getting to the basic point.
Indeed, the actual details were far more believable and largely backed up by television images. Lochte and three teammates left a party early Sunday morning. They took a cab back to the Olympic Village. The cab stopped for gas. They got out to use the restroom. The swimmers damaged the restroom in some way — cracked a door or broke a mirror or wrecked a soap dish — and an armed security guard stopped them from leaving and asked them to pay for the damage.
Lochte and his guys, after being overserved at the party, balked at first. The guard perhaps pulled the gun. The swimmers sat down. They were told police had been called. The swimmers quickly agreed to give the guard and station owner about $50 to pay for the damage. In turn, they were allowed to leave. Police arrived after they had gone. The swimmers returned to the Olympic Village without incident.
That was it. There was no gun cocked to Lochte’s forehead, as he had said. No robber stole his wallet, as he claimed. No taxi driver led him into an ambush, as was implied.
So, yes, Lochte and the other swimmers do owe Rio an apology. If this incident had happened in America and they were not Olympic athletes, they might indeed be facing jail time. And the Rio people have handled this intelligently. Mario Andrada, official spokesman for the Rio Games’ organizing group, said he was also not requesting an apology from Lochte or the swimmers.
“We have to understand that these kids were trying to have fun,” Andrada said. “They competed under gigantic pressure. … Let’s give these kids a break. They had fun, they made a mistake. Life goes on.”
But if you were in the room when Andrada said those words, as I was, you could detect a sly smile that bordered on sarcasm. Andrada well knew that Lochte is no “kid” or even close to being a kid. Lochte is 32 years old. I think the “kid” reference was a clever way for Andrada— and by extension, the Rio 2016 organizers — to point out that Lochte is an immature knucklehead. Which he is. The other three swimmers involved in the incident are in their 20s. Lochte should know better.
Supposedly, this all started when Lochte’s mother wondered where he had been out all night, and in response, he spun the story about the robbery. His mother then tipped off NBC, who tracked down Lochte and asked him about it.
But the biggest question people have about the whole thing starts there: When confronted by the network, why would Lochte ever make up such an involved script about a sinister taxi ride and the fake police and cocked gun and stolen wallet?
Ahem. Did I mention about Lochte’s attention fixation? Maybe he saw another TV reality show in his future if he could find a way to extend his time in the Rio spotlight. Maybe he thought this would be the perfect opening to do so. That would be the fabulist way.
Congratulations, Mr. Lochte. You are now getting all of the attention you have ever wanted.