Ryan Lochte, 32, dives off the block into a pool of gleaming water. His green tinged hair conjures images of his six million dollar endorsements. As he kicks into a perfect freestyle, droplets of water fly off his sculpted shoulders. He is home.
Fast forward ten days; Lochte is the center of an international scandal. His story has been flashed via ticker tape to millions of viewers -- originally ‘Swimmer Robbed In Rio’ but now ‘Lochte’s Story Falls Apart’. He has been accused of being the epitome of American despicabilism, traveling to a foreign country, reeking havoc, and then blaming its occupants.
But why?
Recent evidence has come to light that shows that the essential premise of Lochte’s story was true.
Certainly, when he told his mom (who told the press) his narrative, Lochte left certain elements of the story out -- he was not inside of his taxi when he was confronted but instead outside of the car. Additionally, he mistook the security guards for police officers (an understandable exaggeration for a scared person being yelled at in Portugese) and left out mention of their intoxication and having peed behind the building (which, let’s be real, no one is going to explicitly mention to their mom). But, besides those points, the essential premise rang true: the group of swimmers had a gun pointed at them by men in uniform. After an exchange of cash, the group was allowed to leave freely.
rob |räb|
verb (robs, robbing, robbed) [ with obj. ]
take property unlawfully from (a person or place) by force or threat of force
And I think that really is all that matters. We have let our glee in catching Lochte and Co. in a minor error overshadow the real story. Who cares if an individual mistold the story of their robbery, it is still robbery. We have dismissed the injustice of an international representative being forced to “donate” $11,000 in order to return home.
I call upon the Brazilian Government to rectify crimes against Team USA and to stop using the minutia of details to distract from the truth of Lochte's sentiment. In a time when Brazil has been placed under international microscope, one can understand why a story of a prolific swimmer being robbed would be silenced. But in the name of the Olympics, washboard abs, and freedom, we must remember that our nitpicking is just that, and being a drunk idiot does not mean you are at fault for the crimes committed against you.
