How One Drunken "Lie" Destroyed an Olympians Legacy

what you are seeing is security camera footage of four American Olympians leaving the bathroom of a gas station in Rio De Janeiro Brazil this guy right here that's Ryan locky one of the greatest Olympic swimmers of all time in fact a few days before this clip he won a gold medal in the 4x200 M relay so he and his buddies were out celebrating and they've had a little too much to drink they stumble out of the alleyway and try to get into their taxi and leave but then some unmarked officers take out their weapons and demand the swimmers to exit the vehicle next thing you know Ryan locky has a gun pointed at his forehead and they rob him of all his money well that's what Ryan told news reporters the next day but it turns out he was lying but not by much the truth of the story is just a little bit different than what Ryan reported but that discrepancy was enough to fundamentally destroy Ryan's reputation and swimming career forever in order to fully analyze why this lie was such a massive issue you have to first understand that Ryan locky was a living legend who worked his whole life for his legacy to crumble at the blink of an eye Ryan earned a swimming scholarship at the University of Florida during his college days he became the SEC Champion seven times the NCAA Champion seven times as well as earning the NCAA swimmer of the Year twice while being a 24-time All-American athlete in his senior year he set the record for the 200 yard backstroke and the 200 yard individual Medley at the 2006 NCAA men swimming and Diving championships where he also won national titles in all three of his individual events but his dominance wouldn't stop in college at the 2004 Olympics in Athens he won a gold and silver medal for the 4x200 Met freestyle relay and 200 met individual medley over the next decade he'd go on to win a total of 12 Olympic medals and seven individually making him the second most decorated American male swimmer behind Michael Phelps he broke multiple world record times for different races including the record for the meter medley that he still holds to this day a multi-time swimmer of the Year million dooll sponsorship deals with the likes of Speedo Gillette and Ralph Lauren a Playboy model girlfriend locky was becoming a global icon alongside Michael Phelps Ryan himself said it was a Magic Johnson and Larry Bird type rivalry but it was at the peak of locky's popularity immediately after he won the gold medal for the 4x200 Relay at the 2016 Rio Olympic games where his sport defining waves and competitive swimming would all come Crashing Down now you all know that using steroids will get you disqualified from the Olympics but what if you actually had to be on them to qualify I read this article on Peter the's Olympics on steroids with athletes wearing Apple's Vision Pro this headline piqued my interest and I wanted to learn more so using today's sponsor I read through the ground news breakdown of nearly 90 articles covering this new doped up version of the notoriously drug-free competition 25% of these articles come from right-leaning sources you could have missed this if you consume mostly conservative media go to ground. news/ Patrick cc to read their summary of this from different political viewpoints see any key differences in their coverage or scroll down to read the actual articles many focused on how risky this competition could be While others reported Olympic athletes having mixed feelings an ex drug cheat slams The enhanced games while a nine-time Olympic champion sees the benefits by gathering related news articles from across the world and adding contexts like a source's political lean how reliable they are and even who owns them ground news makes it really easy to explore your curiosity and learn all sides of a story that could never fit in one single article which is why I like to follow my favorite topics like music on ground news to really dive deep on stories that might have missed my radar and with a monthly plan costing less than my daily coffee I really think they're unlike any other news platform so check them out at ground. news/ Patrick CC and get 40% off the same plan that I use their unlimited access Vantage plan on August 14th 2016 this tweet that reported Ryan locky being held at gunpoint sparked one of the biggest scandals in Olympic games history Ben we an Australian Fox news reporter was at the hotel Gran mccure conducting interviews with athletes the hotel was located not far from where the Rio athletes were staying so this was a hub for interviewers to linger around and try to talk with the athletes after conducting a few interviews Ben and his team got on a shuttle that had stops at various hotels around the area at one of the stops a woman came out who had injured her foot Ben and his team quickly helped her and got her on the bus once the lady was seated Ben and her started chatting in unfortunately he soon found out that the woman's stay in Brazil was a nightmare she had broken her foot and her son had been held at gunpoint Ben could not believe this and asked if her son was okay she said yes he's back at the Village Ben responded is he an athlete to which she replied yes and he is prone to Big Knights and that sort of stuff he has bleached white hair or gray hair or blue hair I don't really know what it is Ben's cameraman asked is your son Ryan locky to which she said yes he is she then elaborated ated saying how he had gone to a party late last night with a couple of friends and he had called her and told her he had been held up at gunpoint and they stole his wallet and put a gun to his forehead but luckily he's back in the athletes Village and he's okay Ben and his team couldn't believe that this shocking story just fell into their lap so when they arrived at their next location which was the Adidas headquarters they gave their notes to Fox Sports Australia who ran the story just 2 hours later shortly after the news broke the international Olympic Committee put out a statement saying I can tell you the story is absolutely not true and the United States Olympic Committee is saying it's a false Story So within 2 hours you had one major news Outlet reporting the story as true and the Olympics saying it was false people were confused and didn't know who to believe but then locky himself doubled down on his story a few hours later Billy Bush former host of The Today Show and his friend Kit Hoover were returning from a hike upon their return back to town they just so happened to run into Ryan locky who they had seen from a distance in inside a building Billy Bush swiftly approached Ryan for an interview while kit filmed it all on an iPhone because they couldn't get a crew out in time during this impromptu interview Ryan locky gave his first official statement we got pulled over in our taxi these guys came out with a badge a police badge no lights no nothing just a police badge they pulled us over they pulled out their guns they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground they got down on the ground use I was like we didn't do anything wrong I'm not getting down on the ground and then the guy pulled out his gun he coed it put it to my forehead he said get down and I was like I put my hands up I was like whatever he took our money he took my wallet he left my cell phone he left my credential but he took my wallet and he took all the guys keep in mind this interview took place roughly 4 to 5 hours after the incident had happened Ryan was still drunk at this point and he had been awake for more than 24 hours on a bender his recollection of the man cocking the gun and pointing it at his head would send this story into worldwide news ironically this is exactly what people suspected when they found out the Olympic Games were being held in Brazil as many media Outlets questioned if Rio was safe enough to host around 42,000 people are killed in gun crimes every year in Brazil and from January until May 2016 the Rio deero area had 236 murders one article reported parts of a mutilated body washed up on the shore of a beach next to an Olympic venue although Brazil's government granted $895 million to cover Olympic Security spending it was said it might not be enough to fund police officers with the necessary equipment to keep crime at Bay with one Anonymous officer saying you encounter a drug trafficker with lots of ammunition and you have 20 bullets it's absurd showing the world that Rio could be a safe place for the Olympic Games was the number one priority of everyone involved in the local government hosting the Olympics can create billions of dollars in revenue from tourism before during and after the games along with boosting the economy and building all the infrastructure needed to host multiple Sports after Ryan's robbery story Brazilians received tons of additional fuel to the narrative that their country is unsafe and dangerous so Brazilian authorities were scrambling to find out the real story and they found some inconsistencies they were given footage of locky entering metal detectors back at the Olympic Village at 6:56 a.m. which was roughly 40 minutes after they claimed to be robbed the footage was released in slow motion for some reason and Brazilian judge Caleb Lan denap believes the men did not show any signs of having experience violent crime particularly pointing to when locki playfully boops Fegan on the head with his credentials but this seems like extremely minimal evidence to prove that the men had not experienced a crime maybe they were trying to just act natural and forget about the evening maybe they were distraught but the slow motion footage is hard to interpret Brazilian investigators were also unable to find evidence to support this swimmer claims nor were they able to find the taxi cab driver whose cab was allegedly pulled over these inconsistencies were enough to accuse the swimmers of reporting a false crime which is a crime in itself and the judge ordered a seizure of locky and his teammates passports so they could be brought in for questioning I guess being interviewed on the news is considered reporting a false crime because locki never reported a crime to the police in the first place after all he thought he was robbed by the police from there two of his teammates were pulled off their flight home but by now locky had already made it back to America Ryan probably felt guilty that his friends were being held back in Brazil when he got home he changed a few key details of his story which would be the biggest mistake of his life as you can imagine every news Outlet tried to get another statement from Ryan and he would give one to Matt low on a private phone call on Wednesday August 17th however Ryan changed a few details of the events at first he reported that they got pulled over in their taxi and that the men displayed to him a police Poli badge as well as pulling out guns he changed his story to say that they did not get pulled over but rather when they left the bathroom to get back to the taxi they told the taxi driver to go and he didn't move he said let's go again we've got to get out of here and again the taxi driver didn't move that's when he says two men approached the car with guns and badges told them to get out and to get on the ground but the big difference that Ryan changed in his story was how he described the gun situation remember Ryan initially said that the man cocked it and put the gun to his head well he changed it to that's when the guy pointed the gun in my direction and cocked it now the basis of Ryan's story Remains the Same which is that he was robbed at gunpoint but with all the negative press Brazilians had been getting Ryan's discrepancy was enough for authorities to dismiss locky's story as fabricated at this exact moment what the police can confirm is there was no robbery in the way that it was reported by the athletes authorities then released multiple security C angles to the public that display the events of the evening many news outlets use the footage and Lock's change of the story to run pieces saying mounting evidence indicates Ryan locky fabricated Rio robbery story or locky lied or locky gate I can't stress enough how much worldwide news coverage there was about this story it was literally everywhere every major and minor news Outlet in the world ran a piece on locky which took all of the spotlight away from all other Olympic athletes Med didn't cover the games they just wanted to talk about Ryan a judge in Rio ordered Ryan prohibited from leaving Brazil and even tried to collect his passport the craziest part is that still 7 days after all this chaos and worldwide reporting nobody knew the real story from start to finish most of the world had already branded locky a liar and didn't even care to hear the truth but the real story is not that much different than what he said had happened on August 14th at 6:00 a.m. Ryan locky Gunner B Jack Kong and Jimmy Fegan stopped at a Shell gas station to use the bathroom since they had been drinking all night when they arrived at the gas station the bathroom doors were locked so the four swimmers went out back and relieved themselves in the bushes walking back through an Alleyway Ryan saw an advertisement poster and in an intoxicated State he thought it would be funny to rip the sign off the wall now you can see the footage released by Brazil's globo TV Cuts one full minute out from 607 and 33 seconds a.m. to 608 and 33 seconds am the camera cuts to the sign being on the ground you can't actually see who ripped the sign down why was that footage cut is that not the most important part of the investigation the Rio police chief also stated that the intoxicated swimmers vandalized a gas station bathroom breaking a door mirror and soap dispenser USA Today eventually did their own investigation and released the footage of someone knocking down the sign but you can't confirm who it is they also went to the bathroom the next day to investigate the damage they found the mirror and the soap dispenser were not vandalized and they were not replaced as they were not brand new and at the back are the restrooms that Reports say were badly damaged though we can see no sign of that now this confirms that the real police are actually the ones who lied about him vandalizing the bathroom now the footage doesn't necessarily prove that Ryan ripped the sign down but he admitted to doing it so anyways the metal sign was huge and made a loud sound as it hit the ground prompting workers to go over and see what happened the four swimmers walked back into into their taxi and almost immediately a security guard leans into the cab and seemingly points a weapon at the men 2 minutes go by where the swimmers are trying to convince the taxi driver to leave until they ultimately exit the vehicle Ryan locky begins walking away offc screen two of the other swimmers go back to the alley where the workers show them the damage sign the swimmers don't speak Portuguese so they can only guess that this is what the security guards are upset about the final angle shows one of the men immediately fall down almost like he was pushed then they keep putting their hands up as they are backed onto a curb where they are asked to sit down you can see one of the guards has his hand on his hip it was at this moment that the guards pointed their weapons at the swimmers which can be 100% confirmed because the guard did report to the police that he pointed his gun at them and demanded that they pay for the damages perhaps the biggest and most important piece of the entire story is that the swimmers say nobody spoke English and Brazilian authorities say that there was a translator so the swimmers knew exactly why they were being held the reason why that is so important is if there was a translator then Ryan knew who these men were and why they wanted money if there was no translator then how could he possibly know if these guys were licensed security or just random thugs robbing him the Brazilian chief of police lied about the man vandalizing a bathroom and they even confirmed that one of the security guards used the weapon to quote contain the swimmers so they could not leave without paying for the damage the firearm was used in a situation in which they were contained when they were contained the firearm arm was put away but the police chief went even further to speculate as to why lock de Al lied that it was because the swimmers were having a secret rendevu with women the first information came from a driver who had took two young women who left the event these young women had made out with the swimmers veloso said the swimmers had a reason to tell a story that wasn't true again the Brazilian chief of police pushed a narrative that had absolutely no basis of proof or facts perhaps they were trying to get revenge on him for making their country look bad now with the full story broken down it becomes more clear that both locki and the Brazilian police lied you just have to ask yourself which is worse most people think locky is a vandal nothing but a scummy tourist who doesn't care about being a guest in a country and thought he could do whatever he wanted without consequences others think he was incapable of thinking clearly due to the alcohol and that the security guards if that's actually who they are holding the swimmers at gunpoint was an extremely over-the-top way to get him to pay for a cheap sign all of the major facts of the case were not only true by Lock's statements but also confirmed by the Brazilian authorities the lie that locky was vilified for was his drunken account on the beach where he said a gun was pointed to his head when in reality the men were standing a few feet in front of him pointing the gun at his chest everything else he reported was true they were drunk ripped down a sign approached by unmarked unnamed random men with guns that they did not understand who coerced them out of a Tab and pointed guns at them until they paid money to be released nobody wanted to clarify the story the damage had been done and it was better for Ryan to just accept defeat he hired a crisis PR team to save his image which led to him apologizing for everything that's why I'm taking full responsibility for it is because I OV exaggerated that story and if I'd never done that we wouldn't be in this mess although his story was almost entirely true this apology stamped him as guilty Not only was his character completely smeared all over the worldwide media but the Brazilian authorities also tried to file charges against him that were rightfully dropped even though he wasn't going to be held criminally responsible Ryan's main source of income had completely dropped out from under him four of his major sponsors Ralph Lauren Speedo cinon and airweave all decided to terminate their contracts with him which were all worth an estimated $1 million this caused a huge hit to his finances from living in a 4200 ft home he had to move into an 18 00t apartment with his family it's estimated he only had $20,000 left in savings and obviously no new sponsors wanted to associate with him on top of this the United States Olympic Committee announced he would be suspended for 10 months making him ineligible to compete in the 2017 World Championship as part of his punishment scrambling to make any sort of cash he auditioned to be on the popular USA television competition Dancing with the Stars where a few viewers staged a protest during one of his performances excuse me excuse me wow as security detained the sage Crasher a few women in the crowd wearing t-shirts with locy written on them covered by a no symbol can be heard chanting [Applause] liar as if it couldn't get worse for him he was suspended from the Olympics again in 2018 by the US anti-doping agency after he posted a picture on Instagram of him taking an IV he was not taking drugs he wasn't using steroids he did not take a banned substance but he got an intravenous injection of b12 vitamins which he took to prevent himself from getting sick but since it exceeded 100 millit it did not matter what was involved he broke anti-doping rules and they needed to make an example out of him again Ryan responded a rule is a rule and I accept that there is a technical violation at this point in his life Ryan's reputation was completely tarnished he was almost flat broke and was now banned from swimming for another 14 months maybe if I like said maybe if I like go to sleep and not wake up it'll be fine for everyone cuz I just didn't want anyone to be sad or hurt by by me Ryan spent his days drinking his pain away until a few months later reports came out that he was going to rehab for alcohol addiction the only Silver Lining is that his girlfriend at the time time stuck by his side through everything they are now married and they have two children today he spends his time public speaking telling his story and teaching swim clinics around the country he tried one last time to qualify for the US Olympic swimming team in 2021 But ultimately finished 3 seconds short of that goal putting the final nail in the coffin of his swimming career you know I'm a f uh I'm very humble I mean I have a big heart I care a lot about my family he's part of my family this whole swimming community they're all part of my family um and I'm a dad I'm going to go be a dad right now and give my kids a hug