Last week, a statement was made by USA Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and three of his other teammates that they were robbed and held at gunpoint after a night out in Rio. When I first saw an article about this, my immediate thought was that it was just one of those stories that someone made up and put onto the Internet, but after I started to see more surface and I saw the media coverage, I started to believe it a little more, and so did the rest of America. However, Lochte and the three other swimmers, Gunnar Bentz, Jimmy Feigen, and Jack Conger, pulled the wool over our eyes big time.

The truth

The swimmers were returning to the athlete village after a night out when they stopped at a gas station. While at the gas station, they vandalized the bathroom, damaging the door, breaking the mirror and other various things. Local security guards saw what had happened, so they told the taxi driver not to allow the swimmers to leave and demanded that they pay for the vandalism. One guard did however, use a “firearm to control” the swimmers, which is probably where they pulled the “robbed at gunpoint” from. The swimmers paid the local guard $20 U.S. and an additional 100 Brazilian reals, which is equal to $30 U.S. and then left the scene.

What now?

Ryan Lochte is already back in the U.S. and two of the swimmers, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, were pulled off of a plane late Wednesday night to be questioned about the incident. The two swimmers were then permitted to return home. Jimmy Feigen is still waiting for Brazilian police to return his passport as part of an agreement he made. According to NBC, he is going to donate almost $11,000 to a sports academy for kids in exchange for his passport.

What about Lochte?

Lochte released a personal statement via his Instagram account apologizing for his actions in Rio. After reading it, my person opinion is that his publicist wrote it because it sounds nothing that reflects Ryan Lochte or his personality. In 2013, Lochte had a reality tv show called "What Would Ryan Lochte Do?" that lasted a little over a month, and with good reason. Being a swimmer myself, I was hoping to see one of swimming's greatest athletes doing something awesome with his life, instead I saw his 28 year-old self getting drunk at bars, talking about all of his belongings and overall making a total ass of himself on reality television. You can find the full season of "What Would Ryan Lochte Do?" on YouTube, but I personally wouldn't pay to watch it, so here's a small clip.

After watching a few episodes of that, I never looked at Lochte the same ever again, and after this incident, I don't know if I ever will. I was shocked about how poorly he did in the Men's 200 I.M., but now that this story has come out, I realize that he probably spent most of his time in Rio partying.

Lochte is 32-years-old and needs to start acting like it. Not only does this scandal in Rio give him a bad reputation, but it also reflects the USA Olympic team. His actions do not by any means represent what we stand for. He is currently trying to fix the mess he put himself and his teammates in and right his wrongs.