A CASE OF FINE TUNING
RIO DE JANEIRO — A look back at Day 14 of competition at the Rio Olympics. Forbidden
It’s tough to come down on the side of our recalcitrant swimmers. But, all jingoism aside, the Brazilians are making it a little easier. It’s not being widely reported, but prosecutors are appealing a judge’s ruling that Jimmy Feigen pay $10,800. The money goes to charity.
Doing their best Henry F. Potter imitation, the prosecutors want the fine to be $47,000. Talk about inflation.
Now, none of this is going to mean anything because Feigen, passport in hand, will have left the building. So even if the fine is raised he’ll never have to pay it unless he comes back to Brazil.
What are the chances of that? It happened one night
If you can’t get enough of this story, one of the other swimmers, Gunnar Bentz, released a complete roll-thebus-back-and-forth statement giving Ryan Lochte full villain status. Among the new details:
No damage was done to the door of the bathroom. Instead they relieved themselves on some bushes. (Favorite TV moment of the Games: CNN International reporter breathlessly shows the bushes.)
Lochte ripped a poster off the wall.
Lochte was yelling at the security guards.
Lochte didn’t cough up any money. State of the union
Know him as David Rosen on “Scandal” or Will Bailey on “The West Wing,” Joshua Molina (you’ll know him if you see him) has weighed in via Twitter with a limerick on the Lochte saga:
There once was a swimmer named Lochte,
One night after getting quite crocked, he Reported a crime, With detail sublime, But it turned out his tale was concoct-y American madness
The Brazil vs. U.S. brouhaha took another form when the New York Times criticized the snack Biscoito Globo, calling it “flavorless” and “air turned into a doughnut shaped wafer.” It opened up a social media firestorm, which, frankly, is incredibly easy to do.
It seems the locals really like this mix of coconut oil, milk and sugar. They found the bad review to be yet another attack on their culture by Americans.
The Brazilians are a sensitive lot when it comes to criticism of their country, even if their traffic makes Los Angeles look like Mayberry. Riding high
Enough, already, with all the negativity. Let’s go positive with the number of world records broken so far at the Games.
There’s been one in men’s archery, original mark set by R. Hood of Britain.
Two in track, South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk, from Lane 8 if you can believe it, in the 400, and Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia in the 10,000.
Two in field events, Ryan Crouser of the U.S. in the shotput and Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland in the hammer throw.
Three in track cycling, two Brit teams and one from China.
Two in men’s swimming. No Phelps. No Lochte. No security guards.
Five in women’s swimming, two by Katie Ledecky.
And eight in weightlifting, all pending results of drug testing. It’s a wonderful life
And finally, the new prime minister of Britain says it’s time to move the celebration of Brit athletes around a bit.
Rather than staging all the festivities in London, Theresa May is going to have a parade in Manchester and something else in the Queen’s city.
The Brit stars have traditionally just gotten the royal tea-and-crumpet treatment in England’s capital.
Now, we’re used to having ticker-tape parades in New York, perhaps the only thing that is keeping ticker-tape manufacturers in business.
So, what would be the other city besides New York? Any idea which U.S. city Manchester signed a sistercity arrangement with in 2009? Yeah, think about it — but not for too long.
Help provided by Times staff writers Kevin Baxter, Lisa Dillman, Helene Elliott, Nathan Fenno, Bill Plaschke and David Wharton.