The Rio Olympics are ending on an international issue note as the robbery incident that Ryan Lochte first denied (along with the IOC and Olympic Committee) then admitted to is coming under intense scrutiny by officials in Brazil.
It’s a strange story that began when Ryan Lochte apparently texted his mother that he had been robbed at gunpoint. That got out to the media, and then Ryan Lochte, the IOC and the Olympic Committee denied that the robbery had even happened. That alone was enough to raise flags when the two big committees suddenly jump in on the story so quickly.
Then USA Today contacted Lochte’s mother, and she confirmed that her son had been robbed at gunpoint and had the text as proof. This definitely put a crimp in the denial, so stories suddenly shifted, and Lochte had been robbed. The LA Times did a piece early Sunday morning pointing out the problems in their stories, and as we predicted, it has gotten the curiosity of many people, including the Brazilian authorities.
Naturally, some are trying to blame Brazil and accuse them of holding the Olympic swimmers against their will, but if this had happened in the United States with another countries players, the same would have most likely happened. Especially after the tape at the Olympic Village showed a very different story than what was told.
That’s what is causing this whole mess. If the truth had just been told from the start, whatever actually happened probably would have gone unnoticed. When something tries to get covered up (or appears like it is), then people start paying much closer attention.
Below is a timeline of the day’s events at the 2016 Rio Olympics:
2:10 a.m.
The U.S. Olympic Committee says the two American swimmers who were detained by Brazilian authorities before their U.S.-bound flight departed have been released with the understanding they will continue to cooperate with police.
The USOC also says a third swimmer who was involved in a supposed robbery along with Ryan Lochte also plans to speak to the police on Thursday.
Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were heading home to the United States when authorities stopped them from leaving Wednesday. Authorities are still seeking answers about how the four swimmers robbed Sunday morning.
The USOC says Conger and Bentz “were released by local authorities with the understanding that they would continue their discussions about the incident on Thursday.”
The third swimmer, James Feigen, “intends to make further statements regarding the incident on Thursday as well.”
1:45 a.m.
An attorney for two American swimmers who were taken off a U.S.-bound flight says they will not be allowed to leave Brazil until they provide testimony about a robbery.
Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were heading home to the United States when authorities stopped them from leaving Wednesday. Authorities are still seeking answers about how they got robbed Sunday morning along with teammate Ryan Lochte.
Attorney Sergio Viegas says Conger and Bentz have left the Rio de Janeiro airport for an unspecified location in Brazil and had yet to testify. The swimmers did not speak to reporters upon leaving.
The athletes said they were robbed at gunpoint in a taxi as they returned to the athlete’s village from a party, several hours after the last Olympic swimming events were held. Police have found little evidence so far to support their accounts.
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12:50 a.m.
Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst have won the beach volleyball gold medal, handing the host nation its second straight medal-round setback on the Copacabana sand.
The 21-18, 21-14 victory gave Germany its first medal in women’s beach volleyball, just four years after the German men took the top spot on the Olympic podium in London. Brazil’s Agatha and Barbara, the reigning world champions, took silver.
The game followed a bronze medal match in which Americans Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross beat Brazil’s other women’s team, Larissa and Talita.
The hosts still have a chance for a gold medal when Alison and Bruno play Italy in the men’s championship on Thursday.
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12:45 a.m.
NBC reports that U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte has offered some differing details from his earlier descriptions of a reported robbery involving him and his teammates in Rio de Janeiro.
Lochte has said he was with Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen early Sunday morning when they were robbed at gunpoint in a taxi as they returned to the Olympic athlete’s village from a party.
NBC reports that during a Wednesday telephone interview, Lochte said the swimmers’ taxi wasn’t pulled over, but that they were robbed after making a stop at a gas station. He also said the assailant pointed a gun at him, rather than putting it to his forehead.
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12:40 a.m.
MEDAL ALERT: Germany’s Laura Ludwig and Kira Walkenhorst defeat Brazil to win the gold medal in women’s beach volleyball.
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11:10 p.m.
American Brianna Rollins started out fast and never looked back.
Rollins lead the U.S. sweep of the 100-meter hurdles at the Rio Games on Wednesday night, winning with 12.48 seconds.
Though Rollins was unreachable, it came down to hundredths of seconds for the other two medals.
Nia Ali had silver with 12.59 and Kristi Castlin had 12.61 for bronze.
The United States had such strength in depth this year that they could leave world record holder Kendra Harrison at home and still sweep the race.
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11:05 p.m.
Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross have won the beach volleyball bronze medal, coming back after losing the first set to beat the host Brazilians at Copacabana.
The win comes less than 24 hours after Walsh Jennings lost on the Olympic beach for the first time in 27 matches over four Summer Games.
Walsh Jennings, a three-time gold medalist, delivered a pair of blocks for the final two points on Wednesday night to win 17-21, 21-17, 15-9.
Brazil’s loss still leaves the home country with two beach volleyball medals at the games.
Agatha and Barbara were scheduled to play Germany in the women’s championship later Wednesday night. Alison and Bruno were in the men’s gold medal match on Thursday.
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10:55 p.m.
MEDAL ALERT: The United States has swept the medals in the 100-meter hurdles at the Olympics. Brianna Rollins, the 2013 world champion, won with 12.48 seconds. Nia Ali had silver with 12.59 and Kristi Castlin had 12.61 for bronze.
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10:45 p.m.
MEDAL ALERT: Elaine Thompson got another sprint double for Jamaica at the Olympics. She blasted out of the blocks and never gave Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers a chance to catch her on the straightaway of the 200 meters.
After winning the 100 on Saturday, Thompson now has a double that her compatriot has specialized in. She can make it a triple during the relay races Thursday and Friday.
Schippers said she had a groin injury that pushed her back into fifth place in the 100. And her final push in the 200 was not enough to play catch up.
Thompson ended in a season’s best 21.78 seconds, for an edge of .10 over Schippers. Tori Bowie of the United States had bronze in Wednesday’s race with 22.15.
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10:40 p.m.
The U.S. Olympic Committee says two American swimmers were taken off their flight from Brazil by local authorities amid an investigation into a reported robbery involving Ryan Lochte and his teammates.
USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said Wednesday night that “Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were removed from their flight to the United States by Brazilian authorities. We are gathering further information.”
Lochte said he was with Conger, Bentz and another teammate when they were robbed at gunpoint in a taxi as they returned to the athlete’s village from a party, several hours after the last Olympic swimming events were held. Police have found little evidence so far to support their accounts.
Lochte’s father told media outlets that his son had arrived back in the United States
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10:35 p.m.
MEDAL ALERT: Two-time world champion Tianna Bartoletta finally has an Olympic gold medal, winning the long jump final with a life-time best 7.17 meters.
The 30-year-old American, who won her world titles a decade apart in 2005 and ’15, responded to two big jumps from Ivana Spanovic and Brittney Reese on the fifth attempt to regain the lead with one round remaining. The lead stood.
Defending Olympic champion Brittney Reese of the United States, after three fouls on her first four attempts, took silver Wednesday with a best of 7.15 on her last go.
Spanovic, a bronze medalist at the last two world championships, won the Olympic bronze with a Serbian national record of 7.08.
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10:30 p.m.
FAILED TO QUALIFY: Justin Gatlin has failed to qualify for the final of the 200 meters after placing third in his semifinal heat the Olympics.
Gatlin, who took the silver medal behind Usain Bolt in the 100 meters, finished in 20.13 seconds on Wednesday.
Alonso Edward of Panama won the last of the three semifinal heats in 20.07, followed by Churandy Martina of Netherlands in 20.10.
Bolt was the fastest qualifier in a season-leading 19.78 and is on track for his eighth Olympic gold medal. He is aiming for a third straight sprint double at the Olympics.
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10:25 p.m.
MEDAL ALERT: For the third straight Olympics, China has taken home every table tennis gold medal.
The Chinese men’s team on Wednesday beat Japan 3-1 in the best-of-five-set match. China’s team consisted of the gold and silver medalists in Rio – Ma Long and Zhang Jike – and the world No. 3, Xu Xin.
Germany earlier beat South Korea for bronze.
A day earlier the Chinese women’s team demolished Germany for gold, 3-0. The three-member Chinese women’s team lost only a single game during the three sets. On the team were the gold and silver medalists from Rio – Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia – and the No. 1 player in the world, Liu Shiwen.
The Japanese women took team bronze over Singapore.
China won gold and silver in both men’s and women’s singles.
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10:10 p.m.
Usain Bolt advanced to the final for the 200 meters with the fastest time of the year and is one win away from his eighth Olympic gold medal.
Bolt ran 19.78 seconds, pushed all the way by Canada’s Andre de Grasse in the lane beside him, in the second of two semifinal heats at Rio. He earns an automatic place in Thursday’s final. De Grasse finished in 19.80 seconds to advance.
After winning the 100 meters to clinch his third consecutive Olympic title in that event, Bolt set his sights on a third straight sprint double and added another challenge: He wants to lower his world record in the process.
Bolt set the world record of 19.19 at the 2009 world championships in Berlin. He set the Olympic record in Beijing in 2008.
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10:15 p.m.
MEDAL ALERT: South Korea’s Sohui Kim has won a women’s taekwondo gold medal in the 49-kilogram division at the Rio Olympics, after defeating Serbia’s Tijana Bogdanovic 7-6 in a closely contested final where both fighters struggled to get their distance and timing right.
To chants of “Korea,” Kim scored first with a roundhouse kick before cementing her lead in the second round with a head shot.
The 22-year-old was ranked seventh and only just squeaked into the final after beating France’s Yasmina Aziez by a single point in a nearly scoreless fight that went into overtime. Kim won the German Open earlier this year.
Bogdanovic dominated most of her fights Wednesday and also knocked out the double Olympic defending champion, China’s Jingyu in a surprisingly lopsided fight.
The women’s bronze medals were won by Azerbaijan’s Patimat Abakorova and Thailand’s Panipak Wongpattanakit.
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10:05 p.m.
Halfway home in the decathlon, and reigning Olympic and world champion Ashton Eaton of the U.S. is in the lead.
The world-record holder won the 400 meters Wednesday night to give him 4,621 points after five events.
Kai Kazmirek of Germany moved into second place with a good 400 meters, trailing Eaton by 121 points.
Damian Warner, who beat Eaton in the 100 meters to take the early lead, was in bronze medal position with 4,489 points.
The sprint hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 meters complete the program Thursday.
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9:50 p.m.
The one-woman track team from Russia is out of medal contention at the Rio Olympics.
Darya Klishina, the only person from her country allowed to compete in track and field at the Rio Olympics, reached the long jump final but was eliminated after three attempts.
Her best jump of 6.63 meters in three attempts wasn’t good enough to advance on Wednesday with the top eight jumpers, who all get three more jumps.
The sport’s governing body originally cleared her to compete, but then tried to backtrack by citing supposed new information in the ongoing doping scandal in Russia.
Klishina appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and won. She was reinstated early Monday and started competition on Tuesday.
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9.15 p.m.
American women have won all three semifinals ahead of Wednesday night’s 100-meter hurdles final.
2013 world champion Brianna Rollins won the first semi in 12.47 seconds, and Nia Ali followed it up with a second-semi win in 12.65 seconds. Kristi Castlin finished the final semi in 12.63 seconds.
Only Pedrya Seymour of the Bahamas broke into the American string of best times, finishing second in Rollins’ race with a time of 12.64 seconds.
The U.S. team’s depth is such that world-record holder Kendra Harrison failed to make it through the U.S. trials.
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8:45 p.m.
The U.S. men’s basketball team powered into the semifinals of the Olympics, beating Argentina 105-78 on Wednesday night.
The Americans turned a slow start into an early ending with a 27-2 run in the first half.
They will meet Spain on Friday in a rematch of the last two gold-medal games. Spain beat France 92-67 earlier Wednesday.
Kevin Durant scored 27 points for the Americans.
Luis Scola scored 15 points and Manu Ginobili had 14 for Argentina in what’s expected to the final time the remaining core members of its Golden Generation play together.
Ginobili was taken out in the last few minutes of the game and saluted by the fans, then embraced by each of his teammates on the bench. After the teams headed to their locker rooms, Ginobili returned and was presented the game ball by an Olympic official.
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7:55 p.m.
Japan has swept the gold medals on the first day of the Olympic women’s wrestling tournament in Rio.
Sara Dosho rallied to beat fourth-ranked Natalia Vorobeva of Russia in the 69 kilograms on a takedown with 30 seconds to go in the last match of the day.
Dosho’s teammates Icho and Eri Tosaka claimed titles earlier Wednesday, with Icho winning a wrestling-record fourth gold medal.
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7:15 p.m.
Alex Danson scored two goals as Britain defeated New Zealand 3-0 in the women’s field hockey semifinals.
Wednesday’s win means Britain will advance to the final for the first time.
Britain, which placed third in 1992 and 2012, will play the Netherlands for the gold on Friday. The Dutch defeated Germany in a shootout earlier in the day after a 1-1 draw in regulation. The Netherlands seeks a record third consecutive gold medal.
Britain had plenty of scoring opportunities early and finally cashed in when Danson scored on a penalty corner with 8:48 remaining in the second period. New Zealand possessed the ball more in the second quarter but couldn’t break through, and Britain maintained its 1-0 lead at the break.
In the fourth period, New Zealand’s Kayla Whitelock was issued a yellow card after contact inside the circle, and Britain was awarded a penalty stroke. Helen Richardson-Walsh converted to make the score 2-0. Danson scored on a penalty stroke four minutes later.