Regardless of what actually happened with Ryan Lochte and three of his U.S. swimming teammates at a gas station in Brazil early Sunday, we know the men were out partying prior to the alleged incident. According to police, they were engaging in some popular party boy antics — drinking and hooking up with women.
Fernando Veloso, the Civil Police chief for the state of Rio de Janeiro, told reporters on Thursday that one of the first leads investigators got came from a taxi driver who spoke with two women who claimed they had romantic relations with the swimmers. Veloso says police believe that may have been one of the athletes’ reasons for lying.
Here’s more from the New York Times:
“At least one of the athletes may have had a motive for telling a story that wasn’t true,” Mr. Veloso said, raising the possibility that the accounts were fabricated to disguise that the swimmers had remained at the party until almost sunrise. Mr. Veloso did not specify which of the swimmers might have had that motive.
It sounds like Lochte and his teammates lied for a lot of reasons, but I’m not sure why having sexual encounters with women would be one of them. Leaving the Olympic village to go to a party in a dangerous area? Maybe. Vandalizing a gas station bathroom like teenagers? Sure, why not.
Lochte initially tried to make it sound like the swimmers were randomly robbed, but this is what really happened. It doesn’t seem like meeting women would factor into the equation.
