Pathetic, embarrassing, selfish, childish and cringe-worthy. That's not my description of the Ryan Lochte incident, it is a description of Lochte altogether. Never has an Olympian who is such an also-ran been such a piece of s**t.
Ryan Lochte is the kind of sportsman I hate. No doubt he trains and works hard, no doubt he gives it everything in the pool and no doubt he is a great swimmer but is obsessed with sponsors, self-publicity and just fame in general.
This is the kind of guy that has his own TV reality show (that gets cancelled after one series, because it was dreadful) and on that show says:
“I see me being a designer,
I see me being a model, I see me being a TV star."
The kind of guy that begs to go on Saturday Night Live and Dancing with the Stars (and gets rejected). Now if he were actually the greatest, you might call him a "maverick", to be fair to Lochte, he has an impressive record at Olympic games.
But let's get a few things straight. He is not the greatest. He's not even near it. He may have won 12 medals, but of his 6 golds, 4 were in relays, and he hasn't got half that of Michael Phelps.
I've also got to add, he was useless at this year's games. He somehow almost lost his side the 4x200m freestyle for his team with an awful last 100m and scraped 5th in the medley final. And that's it, compared to Phelps, who practically carried the relays to gold and won two individual golds and another medal too, his achievements are pretty underwhelming.
Now, I'm not saying I could do what Lochte did at these games, but if I'd almost let my team down and had a games so average compared to what I'd previously achieved I wouldn't be best pleased. Sure I'd go out, but get smashed like it's the last night of my life? I don't think so.
Still, each to his own. However, what I definitely wouldn't do is p**s on the floor of a local shop and kick a door down and then lie that I'd been robbed at gunpoint, and somehow make-out that I was the hero.
Lochte at the scene of the crime
But as bad as Lochte is, there's one thing I cannot accept. The fact that people are trying to spin this into some kind of story that Lochte and the press have inherent white privilege issue is actually not fair on white people, or the press.
A lot of people have been comparing Gabby Douglas' story with Lochte's. If you haven't heard about this story, Douglas has been hounded on social media for not putting her hand on her heart during "Star Spangled Banner" for not showing enough national pride. The idea is that everyone has made out Lochte's incident is OK because it was just a drunken mistake but Gabby Douglas' is not.
If that were true, it would be unacceptable. But it's not. If you actually look at who's been criticising her. It's one or two journalists making a comment that she could have looked more passionate on the podium and twitter trolls. And twitter trolls go after everyone. There are nasty people out there, who just love feeding off unnecessary abuse to people. It's not even worth commenting. Needless to say, the criticism has not been severe from respected journalists and she would be silly to take offence from a bunch of lonely, low-life losers on twitter.
Fox News criticised her in 2012 for not wearing a red, white, and blue leotard but at these games, haven't criticised her at all. They also haven't made out, as has no news network, that Lochtegate was in anyway acceptable. The only person to make out it was OK was Mario Andrada, the Rio 2016 spokesperson. Saying:
“Let’s give these kids a break. Sometimes you take actions that
you later regret. They are magnificent athletes. Lochte is one of the best
swimmers of all time. They had fun. They made a mistake. It’s part of life.
Life goes on. Let’s go”
I am in little doubt that Rio 2016 officials still think that Lochte is a moron. But they said what they had to say. To utterly rip into him would have diverted yet more attention away from the sport (which has been captivating over the past few days) and no-one wants that, or at least I certainly don't.
So before we dive head first into another pointless race debate. Let's get the facts straight. The entire world media thinks Ryan Lochte is a loathsome, self-obsessed twit. The USA are embarrassed at him, South American's rightly think his actions were disgusting and the UK press barely have time for him. With Douglas, some (very few) sensible people believe she should have been more passionate during the anthem, but national pride is important in the USA so it is not incomprehensible. She has suffered twitter trolls, but really, if you believe that there is a genuine race issue based off the comments of trolls, you have no argument.
Douglas (second from right) has only received genuine abuse from low-life losers on twitter
And if anyone thinks that Ryan Lochte's disrespect of Brazil and his lies that somehow the police were dodgy and corrupt were done because of "white privilege" are much mistaken. Lochte made up a story which he thought was convincing (but it wasn't because it was picked apart in days), because he is a loser. Equally if anyone is stereotyping Lochte as a typical white person abroad, that is just plain racist.
Rant over. Sorry.
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