# YOUR unOFFICIAL Ryan Lochte phony/not phony Olympic robbery thread! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 18, 2016, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153 "2016-08-18T05:55:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/41 "2016-08-18T19:00:23Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think I remember _trying_ to watch his reality series, but I had to turn it off as I felt the brain cells dying as I watched it. It was one of those things. It was so horrible I couldn’t turn away. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/42 "2016-08-18T19:11:40Z")
> [@Noelq](#): > > I completely believe Ryan’s version. > > Ryan…just ain’t that bright enough to make up a story… > > I watched his reality series. He’s got the creativity of a fence post. > [@Asimovian](#): > > I should never reread anything I type, ever. Not sure how I managed that mental error in the same _sentence_ where I’d gotten it right previously. Is your IRL name Ryan? :o ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/43 "2016-08-18T19:22:01Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Is your IRL name Ryan? :o I wouldn’t tell you even if you held a gun to my head… ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/44 "2016-08-18T19:45:57Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > I couldn’t tell much from the video, [but apparently the two in custody admitted that Lochte lied](http://deadspin.com/report-ryan-lochte-and-his-rowdy-swimming-pals-defiant-1785452472): Still playing devil’s advocate here but I’m not giving full credibility to these statements. After a few hours in police custody, these two might be willing to say anything. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/45 "2016-08-18T20:05:30Z")
For a point of reference this is how other teams deal with issues in Rio: > [@](#): > > A Team GB athlete has been robbed while returning to their accommodation at the Olympic Games in Rio. i.e. privately, aware from the media, letting legal process do its job and not trying to make _you_ the important thing. Lochte just looks an enormous narcissistic, self aggrandising dick. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/46 "2016-08-18T20:17:58Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > For a point of reference this is how other teams deal with issues in Rio: > > i.e. privately, aware from the media, letting legal process do its job and not trying to make _you_ the important thing. > > Lochte just looks an enormous narcissistic, self aggrandising dick. I don’t know much about Lochte other than he’s a pretty and talented idiot, but how is he coming across as a narcissistic, self aggrandising dick? He didn’t go to the media about this, word leaked out, either through his mother or some other way, and he’s just given one interview about it. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/47 "2016-08-18T20:18:38Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > For a point of reference this is how other teams deal with issues in Rio: > > i.e. privately, aware from the media, letting legal process do its job and not trying to make _you_ the important thing. > > Lochte just looks an enormous narcissistic, self aggrandising dick. To be fair, I think he just told the original lie to his mother, who than, unaware that it was a lie, passed it on to the media. At which point Lochte decided to keep running with it rather than admit he’d lied. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/48 "2016-08-18T20:31:00Z")
A 32-year-old man with green/silver hair, a bad reality TV series and tragic fashion choices has been an international douchebag because he was worried his mom might find out he lied. And left his friends/compatriots hanging in the process. Pretty much sums it up right there. “I win X gold medals representing my country - do they call me Gold Medal guy? No! But fuck ONE goat…” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/49 "2016-08-18T21:07:15Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > I couldn’t tell much from the video, [but apparently the two in custody admitted that Lochte lied](http://deadspin.com/report-ryan-lochte-and-his-rowdy-swimming-pals-defiant-1785452472). To nitpick, I think all we know at this point is that the police are saying that the two admitted that Lochte lied. That may be true, but it will be good to get some independent confirmation in time. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/50 "2016-08-18T21:22:06Z")
What a bunch of douche bags. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/51 "2016-08-18T22:18:01Z")
You know, I get why Brazil’s pissed about it, but what they are doing seems to be over the top. Ryan may have gotten into some trouble and lied and made Rio seem super unsafe, but he didn’t really do anything illegal. There was no police report filed, so this can’t be a case of filing a false report and being charged for that. The police should have just let them go and now they’ve made it an international incident. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/52 "2016-08-18T22:37:28Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > You know, I get why Brazil’s pissed about it, but what they are doing seems to be over the top. Ryan may have gotten into some trouble and lied and made Rio seem super unsafe, but he didn’t really do anything illegal. There was no police report filed, so this can’t be a case of filing a false report and being charged for that. The police should have just let them go and now they’ve made it an international incident. Sure, objectively it’s a little over the top, obviously politics in play. But I guarantee that if this turns out to all be bullshit and the “robbery” turns was really a security guard demanding they pay some money for peeing on the wall/breaking stuff then the vast majority of opinion will be against the swimmers. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/53 "2016-08-19T02:10:04Z")
I imagine the people who were upset by The way Gabby Douglas stood for the anthem, must be outraged at how these entitled douches acted. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/54 "2016-08-19T02:43:48Z")
Best article so far on this fiasco. Arrogant, self entitled douchebag dialed up to 11. [Ryan Lochte: A champion swimmer caught in a riptide of self-absorption](http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/olympics-swimming/ryan-lochte-a-champion-swimmer-caught-in-a-riptide-of-selfabsorption-20160819-gqwaux.html) > [@](#): > > Ryan Lochte is the dumbest bell that ever rang. The 32-year-old swimmer is so landlocked in juvenility that he pulled an all-nighter with guys young enough to call him uncle. His story to NBC’s Billy Bush had the quality of a kid exaggerating the size of a fish, and notice how he was the hero of every detail. That was always the most dubious, implausible part. > > There is a special category of obnoxious American “bro” that Lochte represents, in his T-shirt and jeans and expensive suede footwear, which he showed off on Instagram that night at the party along with the price tag. “We’re 6k deep here,” he captioned it. Is there anything worse, in any country, than a bunch of entitled young drunks who break the furniture and pee on a wall? There is no translator needed for that one, no cultural norm that excuses it. If I’d been working at that Brazilian gas station, I might’ve pulled a gun on them, too. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/55 "2016-08-19T02:59:22Z")
Imagine if an African-American athlete had gotten caught up in something like this. “Thug” would be grown around left and right. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/56 "2016-08-19T03:22:29Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Imagine if an African-American athlete had gotten caught up in something like this. “Thug” would be grown around left and right. Yup. A black Olympian gets criticized for how she stands, while these bros trash a gas station and piss in public. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/57 "2016-08-19T09:05:02Z")
Latest info I’ve seen seems to confirm parts of the atheletes story; Brazilian police release video from the gas station. But forgetting (or not knowing) that digital video has internal time codes, which people look at and find that a critical 3 minutes have been edited out of the released version. One shot in the released video shows 3 of the atheletes sitting on the ground with their hands in the air, just as they described. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/58 "2016-08-19T09:49:28Z")
A summary: > [@](#): > > Four views of Ryan Lochte > > Slate: > > “Maybe he’s just a lunk, or a doofus, or a Faulknerian idiot man-child, or the real-world analogue of Moose from Archie. There are all sorts of unflattering descriptors that might apply to Ryan Lochte.” > > Washington Post: > > “There is a special category of obnoxious American ‘bro’ that Lochte represents, in his T-shirt and jeans and expensive suede footwear, which he showed off on Instagram that night at the party along with the price tag. ‘We’re 6k deep here,’ he captioned it. Is there anything worse, in any country, than a bunch of entitled young drunks who break the furniture and pee on a wall?” > > San Francisco Chronicle: > > “It doesn’t matter what else Lochte has done in his Olympic career. This cemented his legacy: most embarrassing Olympic athlete.” > > New York Post: > > “He cried wolf and was called on it, and that will be his burden to bear for a good long while - but not his alone. The Ugly American is alive and well in 2016 thanks to this dope.” > **[US apologises for swimmers' 'unacceptable behaviour'](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-37127499)** > > The United States Olympic Committee apologies for the "unacceptable behaviour" of four US swimmers who claimed they were robbed at gunpoint in Rio. He should maybe get one of those unreality shows with Hope ‘they were cowards’ Solo and call it The Ugly Americans. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/59 "2016-08-19T11:53:14Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Yup. A black Olympian gets criticized for how she stands, while these bros trash a gas station and piss in public. I’m loving how folks automatically believed Lochte’s story because it involved furriners dressed as police officers in a country perceived to be “corrupt third world”. But every day, people accuse American police officers of less severe crimes, and it’s always, “Let’s wait for all the facts to roll in!” Even when all the facts do roll in, the victim is blamed for their role in the situation. But so many people (including myself) automatically gave Lochte et al. the benefit of the doubt because “Why would they lie about something like that?” My hypothesis? He lied because he knew the gas station would likely have survelliance cameras and that the video footage would be in circulation very soon. So he fabricated a “we wuz robbed” story to get control of the situation. And because he’s an idiot, he couldn’t keep the lie straight or make the basic details be in line with what actually happened. And his teammates, being considerably younger than him, wrongly assumed that he knew what he was doing…never thinking that the lie would grow legs the way it did. Tragedy, all around. Moral of the story, kids: Don’t hang out with douchebags. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153/60 "2016-08-19T12:07:26Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Arrogant, self entitled douchebag dialed up to 11. In the “arrogant” department, I’m reminded of a quote from Lochte in London four years ago: > [@an arrogant](#): > > honestly I feel like this is my time. This was uttered shortly before being soundly upstaged by Michael Phelps (who, with class, later declined to comment on Lochte’s ill-advised claim). Maybe Lochte is starved for attention after living in Phelps’ gold-medal shadow for so long, but this whole robbery thing is bizarre. If the reason you get robbed at gunpoint is because you’ve trashed a gas station bathroom in a drunken, urine-soaked stupor, the smart thing is to say “let us never speak of this again.” Instead, Mr. MyTime decides to try to paint himself as a hero who doesn’t flinch when staring death in the face and impugns the Rio police in the process, somehow never imagining that the attention he invited would lead to the truth being discovered - which is that he’s simply a mendacious, vandalous drunkard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-unofficial-ryan-lochte-phony-not-phony-olympic-robbery-thread/763153.md?page=4)