An early breaking news story on Sunday morning said that US swimmer Ryan Lochte was robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro during a party late on Saturday night. It’s a horrible, but not totally unexpected event given the problems the city has with crime. After the initial report is where things got strange.
Ryan Lochte and three other members of the U.S. swimming team were robbed at gunpoint in Rio
The report was initially denied by the IOC director of communications but was later confirmed by the United States Olympic Committee
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
There are five layers to the report that Lochte got robbed, and each one is more confusing than the last.
1. Report emerges that Ryan Lochte was held up at gunpoint.
BREAKING: @USASwimming Gold medallist Ryan Lochte has been held up at gunpoint at a party in Brazil.
— Ben Way (@BenWayFOX) August 14, 2016
Details on @FOXSportsNews 500.
This is where things began. There’s little reason to believe this didn’t happen, unless the report was incorrectly sourced.
2. IOC director of communications denies the report.
IOC director of comms Mark Adams has just said Lochte gunpoint story is "not true."
— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) August 14, 2016
This makes sense. Either the story was legitimately incorrect, or the IOC (which has a vested interest in portraying the games as infallible) is trying to hide what happened. Remember, this is the organization that hid why the diving pool was turning green for five days.
3. IOC director of communications says he got his info from the USOC.
More from Adams on Lochte. Said his info came from USOC: "They said they’d spoken to Lochte, who said it wasn’t true."
— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) August 14, 2016
Now we have another layer. The IOC isn’t denying it happened, but the US Olympic Committee is.
4. Lochte’s mom confirms report to USA TODAY, but his coach never heard about it.
It’s here the story started to get really weird. USA TODAY contacted Ryan Lochte’s mother and his personal swimming coach to try and determine what happened, and the answer was conflicting.
Lochte’s mother says he was unharmed and the thief stole his wallet, while his personal coach says he was with Lochte on Sunday morning and the swimmer never mentioned being robbed. That’s a little strange.
5. Now things are really weird.
IOC now saying the USOC initial denial about Ryan Lochte is "NOT CORRECT".
— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) August 14, 2016
So the IOC and Lochte’s mother are saying the robbery did happen, while the USOC is denying it and Lochte’s coach hasn’t heard anything — despite being with him. The strangest part of this is who the USOC actually spoke to. They say they talked to Lochte directly and he said it didn’t happen, but this appears to be untrue.
6. Now the USOC is saying that Lochte DID get robbed.
USOC statement confirming Ryan Lochte and 3 others were robbed pic.twitter.com/fwrloczPZS
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) August 14, 2016
Why they didn’t say this from the get-go is bizarre.
Some theories on how this all happened:
Keep in mind this is all plausible speculation, because we’re desperate to know what happened in all this also.
- Initially the USOC didn’t want it to be known that he was at an off-village party for some reason.
- Lochte wanted to deny what happened publicly, but confirm it privately — which is why his mother knew.
- The USOC tried to hide what happened until they could no longer deny it.
Lochte issued a statement after a few hours and was remarkably chill about it all.
Ryan Lochte is even chill with a gun pointed at his forehead https://t.co/I9vXl6b1q1 pic.twitter.com/ZY0k8CY861
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) August 14, 2016
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