The US State Dept is there along with other Olympic officials and others to help oversee things. If you are telling the truth, why the need to leave? Just go in for questioning and be done with it. If some incident happened here in the USA and a foreign national just skipped the country, wouldn’t you find it a little odd?
@doschicos I wouldn’t find it odd. There have been other circumstances where American citizens have been held against their will in a foreign country. I wouldn’t assume fair treatment. I’d leave as well.
I do not find it odd a bit. I would get the heck out of there, too!
From a NY times article:
So what if there were some inconsistencies in the swimmers’ stories. They were drunk, had been up all night, and then robbed. They have no motive and nothing to gain by inventing this crime.
Ya, just saw them removed from their planes.
^ There’s something else going on here, let’s say involving too much ‘celebrating’ …Ryan Lochte has changed his account of what happened from what I read this morning.
There are now reports of an athlete from Great Britain being robbed at gunpoint. They (Great Britain) are not releasing the name of the athlete but warning their people that it is not safe to go out after dark.
A bus that was carrying reporters was shot at and the police told them it was hit by rocks.
The police are doing themselves no favors by trying to discredit Lochte and his fellow swimmers.
Definitely more going on with the Lochte story than was originally reported. If you were robbed at gunpoint, wouldn’t you call the police or report it to team officials or to someone in the Olympic Village when you returned at 4 a.m., or 7 a.m.? The police didn’t become involved until they heard about it when Lochte’s mother was discussing it in the media. Now they didn’t get pulled over, it was at a gas station, and there was a gun but it was never put to Lochte’s head. Too many questions.
There is strong evidence of a crime being committed - by Lochte and his fellow swimmers.
I always thought Jan Ove Waldner is the greatest table tennis player of them all. After seeing Ma Long in action last night, I am not so sure any more.
Malaysia did not pull off an upset yesterday against Indonesia as I hoped. I am looking forward to see what they can do against China in men’s double badminton.
My heart is always with the underdog.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ryan-lochte-rio-robbery_us_57b5c16ee4b095b2f542b9f6
It would be rather embarrassing if the above is true.
Why would they lie? Someone is even dumber than I previously thought and I didn’t have high expectations before lol!
If the reports are true about the gas station, it sounds like he lied to his mom, who then reported it to the press. Rather than coming clean at the time, he stuck with his story including filing a police report. Jeah.
Moral of the story: Don’t lie to your mom, the authorities, and NBC.
From the most recent Washington Post article:
“At his daily press briefing, IOC spokesman Mario Andrada had a different take on the situation. “Let’s give these kids a break,” he said. “They had fun. They made a mistake. Life goes on.””
Lochte is 32. Why is he being referred to as a “kid”?!
Shameful that the Olympics as a whole and the American athletes have to be tainted by this.
I wonder if Lochte will still get his $25K per gold medal? I don’t think he deserves it after this embarrassment.
I heard speculation that Lochte and cohorts could be banned from competitive swimming for life for this stunt. What an embarrassment to the U.S. and the U.S. Olympic Committee. I thought one entitled jerk on the swim team (Phelps, who at least seems to have grown up in recent years) was enough, but apparently it’s becoming a tradition.
Lochte is 32? I thought he was in his 20s. Good grief.
Public urination? Minor vandalism? Lying and making up stories? What were they thinking?!
Lochte has figured out how to make himself more famous (really, infamous) than Phelps.