New Security Camera Footage Sinks Ryan Lochte's Robbery Claims
According to Brazilian officials, the Olympian's story doesn't float.
By Dan Bova •
Something doesn't float ... Brazilian authorities told ABC News that a gas station security camera captured swimmer Ryan Lochte smashing a restroom door and arguing with a security guard, in turn smashing his story of getting robbed at gunpoint.
According to The New York Times:
"After watching video and hearing testimony from witnesses, the Brazilian police have determined the incident involved damage to a bathroom door at a gas station where the swimmers stopped in the early hours Sunday on the way back to the athletes' village from a party.
"A Brazilian police official who had reviewed the video images said that there had been no armed assault, contrary to what the swimmers had claimed. The official declined to be identified because the investigation was continuing."
Was Lochte lyin' in his original claim, that men posing as police officers carjacked the U.S. swim team's taxi and robbed them at gunpoint? While the police force in the notoriously corrupt city of Rio is far from unimpeachable, it is starting to look that way. We will have to wait and see what this means for Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz, his two fellow swimmers who were pulled off their flights back to America, and are currently still in Brazil.
Related:
If it turns out Lochte did lie, how will this affect his future? As we've seen in the past, some athletes are able to overcome scandals and others … not so much. Check out this gallery of star athletes who lost their endorsement deals.
One Brazilian who is ready to let this incident float away like so much sewage pumping into the waves of Copacabana Beach is IOC Rio spokesman Mario Andrada, who released this remarkable statement, tweeted by Yahoo! Sports editor Greg Wyshynski
Official statement from IOC #Rio2016 spokesman Mario Andrada on #LochteGate. It's amazing. pic.twitter.com/4B03on17QL
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) August 18, 2016
