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| US Swimmers | Jimmy Feigen, Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz & Ryan Lochte, lied about being held at gunpoint & robbed, realitywives.net |
Growing up in post-World War Two USA, sportsmen and sportsmanship were the epitome of morality. Of course, that was long before there was an awareness and the systematic testing for all sorts of drugs to enhance performance and mask severe pain. Naivete and ignorance were valued characteristics for us audience. This wasn't only true when it came to sports. Show business, movies, theater, TV etc, was no better; it was possibly worse. And looking back without the rose-colored glasses, it's clear that politicians were also hiding a multitude of sins...
Just a week or so ago, Ryan Lochte and some teammates were basking in sympathy as innocent victims of crime. And then suddenly, unexpectedly for them, the proverbial #$%%$#!!# hit the fan as the truth came out that Ryan Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen were the perpetrators of a crime, not innocent victims.
Ryan Lochte on Rio Robbery: ‘I Overexaggerated That Story’Being a top Olympic athlete, especially in the popular individual sports like swimming, is BIG BUSINESS. Winning in the swimming pool can provide a lifetime of comfortable big-time money. In the United States, Olympic athletes may still be officially "amateur," but they can earn big bucks from sponsors.
Originally, Lochte told NBC’s Billy Bush that he and the three swimmers were in a taxi headed back to the Olympic Village from a party at France House when they were pulled over by thieves impersonating police, who pulled guns and demanded they get on the ground and relinquish their money.
That version of events soon unraveled, and on Saturday, Conger offered another version of events. In a statement, Conger said that the group pulled into a gas station in order to use the restroom. Instead, they ended up relieving themselves against a wall, and Lochte damaged a sign, Conger wrote. When confronted by armed security to pay for the damage, the group offered $20 in U.S. currency and about $33 in Brazilian reais.
Ryan Lochte, like his teammate and Olympic legend Michael Phelps, is over thirty, and apparently a leader/role model for the younger swimmers. While Phelps came to Rio with his fiance and their baby, Lochte came to party.
It's good to hear that Lochte is losing sponsors, Speedo USA, Ralph Lauren Among Companies Dropping Ryan Lochte Amid False Robbery Claims. But I think that the Olympic Committee should take much stronger steps, such as taking away their medals. Yes, take them away from all four tarnished athletes. That's because we don't want a situation in which the "follower" or the more successful at placing the blame on another can be immune from consequences. It's not enough for the sports-trainers to teach athletic skills, the athletes must learn morality.
Though, considering that the sportsmen in the Olympic Village were supplied with condoms along with their sports drinks and fitness facilities, I wonder what really goes on between competitions and the moral fiber of the athletes and their trainers.
