He’s 32 years old. How was he pressured? By his momma? The other swimmers with him were drunk as well but they didn’t feel the need to fabricate untruths to make themselves out to be some macho figure.
He’s an amazing swimmer, handsome, and a bit entertaining but I don’t see him as a victim.
@doschicos:
I when the whole Lochte story broke wondered why he would lie, why would he make up the story about being robbed and so forth. We still don’t know the entire story (did Lochte and his pals vandalize the restroom, what exactly happened there, did the station owner claimed they ruined the station when they didn’t and extorted money from them? We don’t know), but what it looks like to me is that he wanted to maintain his image and was afraid of being embarassed by being drunk and doing something stupid. I don’t think Locthe particularly sold the image of the All American boy, but he still had endorsements and did motivational speaking and such I assume, so he probably figured that being drunk at a bathroom at a gas station at rio at 6am after partying might not go over well…and so concocted the story about being robbed at gunpoint, probably figuring this being Rio people would believe it, given the reputation Rio has. He has learned a hard lesson, though, that concocting stories like this often end up causing more harm then the original story, if he told the truth, if he said we had been out partying at the French house, we coming home, had to use the john then found ourselves being accused of vandalism and had a gun pointed at us, it likely would have been less of a big deal, but he outright lied to try and cover up what happened.
I think Lilly King did say what needed to be said.
Russia systematically dopes their athletes. The article ignores that fact and subscribes Efimova’s drug doping to vitamins at GNC and a one-time drug doping by her government. Those may be the only two times she actually got caught. I’m sure Lilly thought differently. I don’t blame her.
In races where 1/100ths of a second make the difference any advantage no small is huge.
Musicprint–the whole point is that Lochte’s story was NOT fabricated. He did not change his story except to say the gun wasn’t pointed at his head (but a gun was still pointed at him). Matt Lauer said he substantially stuck to his story. And the more that comes out about the incident the more it sounds like the truth.
There were several robberies of athletes during the Olympics (not all USA). One was a robbery where military police took an athlete to an ATM and had him withdraw cash. Not just a robber–police.
I guess what upsets me about the Lochte story is how fast people (and therefore sponsors) are to judge and form opinions before all the facts are in.
Such corruption in Rio, and yet people were quick to believe the police.
He said that the cab was pulled over.
He said nothing about stopping at the gas station and peeing in the hallway, nor about pulling the poster and frame off the wall.
He didn’t say that the $20 they paid was for the damage he caused.
He said they were robbed.
He said they arrived back at the athlete’s village hours earlier than they actually did.
This is what he did say:
Other robberies in Rio aside, this was not a robbery. Lochte made himself look like an idiot by lying and embellishing the story to cover his boorish behavior. As others have said, had he told the truth, this wouldn’t still be a story. We’d all still think he’s an idiot but he likely wouldn’t have lost sponsors and caused real damage to his future.
I still can’t imagine Ryan Lochte on Dancing with the Stars. I imagine him more on the Bachelor. Not to dismiss his swimming abilities.
@gouf78 :
Lochte did lie, he said he was in a cab that was pulled over, and that someone with a police badge pulled a gun on him and put it to his head when he refused to get on the ground. That is way different than being at a gas station at 6am, to go to the bathroom, and allegedly vandalizing the place. I wouldn’t be surprised if the store owner and the security guys had tried to extort money out of them or otherwise act badly, but the original story Lochte told was untrue and it wasn’t just the gun at his head, it was the circumstances.
More of a Lily King supporter for what she said versus the gold medal. Didn’t even have a problem on what she said about Gatlin. Maybe if more athletes called at the cheats there would be less of it.
How about when the Americans are caught for drug use, for doping? They serve their suspensions and then we let them compete again. Lily King isn’t in charge of who can compete and who can’t.
I didn’t care for the booing and unsportmanlike behavior of the Brazilians. Sure, cheer for your athletes but the booing other athletes and the cheering when errors were made was bad. They were taunting Hope Solo with ‘Zika, Zika’, they cheered when the American gymnast made a mistake. Not good hosts.
I agree with the booing by Brazilians being in bad form but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I found Zika, Zika thing at least a tad humorous. Solo is a piece of work and her ridiculousness set her up for that ridiculing.
“How about when the Americans are caught for drug use? They serve their suspensions and we let them compete again.”
Sure. We don’t condone doping. You actually get in trouble for it.
You must have discounted the fact that the Russian government sanctions doping for their athletes. They were caught giving clean urine samples to their athletes through a hole in the wall during drug tests. They cheat.
The Russians were banned from competing and very close to competition were allowed by Olympic committee to let some (turns out most) of their athletes compete if they were clean. But guess who did the choosing and testing of the athletes? The Russians.
@twoinanddone Their ratings plummeted. So no, it wasn’t a wise business decision. They also blamed millenials for their low viewership, citing that millenials would rather watch “e-sports” or be on snapchat or Twitter than watch the Olympics. I would much rather be on Twitter during the Olympics when Twitter is the one that actuall has commercial-free, instant results of different events. They dropped the ball. Again.
“They were caught giving clean urine samples to their athletes through a hole in the wall during drug tests. They cheat.”
Incorrect. The story that I read described what was happening differently. It was a very sophisticated operation. The athletes did not do the swap - they provided a “real time” sample. The swapping was done by a handful of folks in the testing lab. There was a good reason not to involve the athletes: the more people know about the cheating, the higher the chance someone will blow the whistle or will refuse to participate blowing up the pyramid scheme.
Here is one article describing the operation:
The already sealed samples have been tampered with… some had salt added to them to account for changes in the metabolism (making urine look more concentrated, I guess?) - this could not be done by athletes through a hole in the bathroom wall.
Ok, on a lighter note… a local radio DJ called Lochte “Swim Shady.”
twoinanddone- Are you aware that Lily King clearly stated that the US athletes who had been caught doping (i.e. Justin Gatlin) should not be at the Games?
Lochte is punished by his own stupidity. Being 15y o at 32 is all grand, but what is he going to do now? Any book deal / movie? Or is he going to wait tables? All those thousands of hours in a pool for what? - for being shamed over and over. The level of his stupidity way higher in my eyes that the level of his actual misdemeanor. If you are that stupid, you definitely deserve what you got!
Re: Justin Gatlin
http://www.espn.com/olympics/trackandfield/story/_/id/17266884/justin-gatlin-defends-competing-rio-games-doping-violations
No athlete chooses who can compete, that is up to the sports federations involved, about what the penalties are and whether they can compete, I don’t see where Lily King had anything to do with that. All she did was show her contempt for the Russian swimmer, which may have been childish, but it was her right to do so. Hate to tell you, but the same thing happened to Barry Bonds and A-rod, among other plahyers suspected of being dirty, fans and fellow players showed them a lot of contempt shrug.
And yes, other athletes have been caught doping, Justin Gatlin was suspended for several years for doping, but he competed at these Olympics. However, there was context here that I think put the Russian swimmer in a bad situation, almost the entire Russian olympics team was banned from competing because the doping was so bad, they have even banned the Russian para olympians from participating in those games, and in that context a lot of this was showing contempt for the Russian program as a whole. One of the big differences is Russia runs a state program, when an athlete like Gatlin dopes it is likely it is him as an individual doing it, the perception is with Russia (as it was with the eastern European teams back in the day), it is program wide.
Is that fair to the Russian woman? Not really, for all we know she didn’t have a choice, they might very well force their athletes to dope. Russia (and China) both have government agencies and labs who it is strongly suggested are finding ways to dope without getting caught (and yes, there are labs here doing that, like Balco and the place in Miama A-rod used), and I think it is her taking the heat for what the government is doing.