If you're following the Ryan Lochte scandal... then you already know what is being alleged. If not, then here's a brief summary: Lochte and his fellow swimming buddies originally alleged that they were on their way back to the Olympic Village in the early morning hours from a party, via a taxi. Lochte stated that they were all robbed at gunpoint... several guys pretending to be cops forced them out of the taxi and robbed them.
Approximately 48 hours later, Lochte is back home in the US, and his buddies were detained and prevented from leaving the country for further questioning about the alleged incident.
Lochte's teammates, suddenly, are changing their stories about what took place. They're saying that most all of the story was fabricated. They said that after a night of drinking, they hopped in a taxi and stopped at a gas station to use the restroom on their way back to the Olympic Village. The toilet door was locked... they became agitated, busted down the toilet door. The store employee confronted them, they became rowdy... they urinated inside the store. Surveillance video doesn't show everything that went on, but apparently someone (maybe a security guard) confronted them and detained them long enough to have them pay for the damages. But his teammates refuted that they were held at gunpoint and robbed.
Lochte, despite hearing the news that his buddies flipped their version of the story, doubled down on his initial version earlier today. That means that he's either telling the truth and his teammates are being coerced into changing their stories, or (more likely) that he's just a lying douchebag unworthy of being called an Olympian.
To be fair, it isn't completely out of the question that Lochte might be telling the truth. The local authorities there have been known to be corrupt and untrustworthy. But it just seems that there's too much evidence to refute Lochte's original story... reliable sources have reported that they all came back to the Village with their cellphones, Olympic credentials, passports and cellphones. If they were robbed - really robbed - I would think cellphones would probably be worth much more on the blackmarket than whatever cash they had in their wallets.
But for whatever reason - Lochte continues to insist that he's telling the truth.
The Olympic Committee spokesman released a statement today that would also indicate that Lochte's teammates' version of what happened is probably more truthful, saying something to the effect of "although regrettable, we've all done things that in hindsight we wish we hadn't done, and boys will be boys." So apparently they've got a pretty good idea of what actually happened.
But they're wrong about one thing. They're not "boys." Lochte is in his early 30's... all of these guys are adults. They're old enough to understand the consequences of their actions. And I would guess, at the very least, that a significant consequence is very much at stake with regard to current and future corporate sponsorships. It's probably nothing worth detaining them for several days, other than to find out whether or not their stories were legit... I seriously doubt that beyond the significant hits they'll take in endorsement monies that they'll suffer anything other than humiliation and a potential fine. But they are guests of another country, and as such they're bound by the laws there. We have a reasonably good relationship with Brazil, so I don't anticipate any sort of extreme punishment.
I'm leaning toward douchebag.