sdandrea1
What's been revealed thus far would more than support that conclusion.
Lochte probably came up with the story, rehearsed it with his buddies on the way back to their rooms, and then got the hell out of dodge, not realizing the possibility that the local authorities would dig deeper.
And let's face it - thus far the games have pretty much gone on without a hitch, despite the corruption in local government, or the unsanitary conditions, or the crime and pickpocketing, etc. there've been a few minor reports of stuff being stolen, but I think that goes on just about everywhere. For the most part they've avoided the major image setback, at least based on the doom and gloom reporting the past several months leading into the event.
So when they heard about this - they had every reason to investigate... something of this magnitude could put a huge black eye on the games, and in turn could hurt future tourism dollars. To that point - one could maybe understand why corrupt officials would do everything they could to sweep this under the rug (if Lochte's allegation was true). But I think too many arrows are pointing to it being a huge made-up lie, with sufficient evidence to refute it.
None of them will get through this unscathed... but Lochte, imo, is the one who's really going to face the music image-wise. It's pretty clear that he's the ringleader, and it's being reported that he's actually had brushes with the law prior to this going back a few years. So it'll be interesting to see if he continues to stick with his story in the coming days.
If I was his father, I'd tell him to come clean. Get on a plane, head back to Rio, meet with the local authorities and confess that he lied. Tell them that he was drunk, he made a bad decision, then made matters worse by lying about what happened... apologize to the committee, and apologize to the locals for doing something that had every reason to paint them in a poor light. That would be my advise, at least if he had any hopes of marketing himself in the future. Otherwise - no company will touch him with a 10 foot pole. And they still might not after this, regardless of what he does. But at least he potentially gains a little respect from the folks back home.
It's not that we don't expect people to screw up... but when they do and get caught - we also expect them to own it. The longer he denies this, the worse it gets for him.
But based on his history, I seriously doubt that he'll do much more than release a statement apologizing, then try to pretend none of this ever happened. If, in fact, he even decides to admit that it was a cockamamie story to begin with.