I believe they did some stupid stuff and then got extorted. Story should have ended there but brain dead Lochte creates an international incident which forces rio police to come at them hard. Issue the apology, let the brasilians save face and move on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/sp...smtyp=cur&_r=1

That's pretty much the take by the folk on Omni PR (which surprisingly enough posts have remained civil in the thread).

If Lochte had kept his mouth shut about the incident, first to his mom & then giving an embellished account on national tv (and then changing his story), this wouldn't have come up at all.

He issued an apology today (written by high-powered publicist) to try & save his sponsor contracts (somewhere btwn 6-10million), although it's not a total apology. He still faces sanctions by the swimming federation, although if he was retiring vs. continuing to Tokyo that might not matter. He also stands to lose the $25K he'd receive as a bonus for being part of the gold medley team in swimming.

The sad part about all this is that the 5 days this mess has been covered has taken away from the actual Olympics and the athletes of all nations competing.

Cheers.

What does he endorse? I'll happily boycott whatever from now on, and make sure to tell my friends.
The guy who apparently did the most damage is donating 10K to a Rio charity. Why doesn't Lochte (and the others) step up?

And the athletes from certain countries refusing to shake hands with the athletes from another. Kumbaya.

And that Rio's supposedly bad rep has been added to, despite the "revised" ending.
I'm sure that 5 years down the road or more, some newbie on some travel forum is going to point to this "robbery" as an example of why they're afraid to go to big bad Rio/Brazil.

He's given an "apology" -- to various parties -- but is sticking to the line that it felt like extortion. His "apology" timed so that his buddies that night would be on the path to make a way out.

I doubt he has done much good to secure his sponsorship relationships from damage. And I'm sure some people will point to this kind of incident as something indicative of what can go wrong to visitors to Rio. Being drunk and hanging out with someone causing damage to private property isn't exactly a way to avoid trouble anywhere.

Those who cancelled trips or were scared away: you missed a great time! My cousins who came to visit loved it and mentioned because of the weak real they were able to do twice as much stuff as they did in London and never felt unsafe (though they said that wouldn't be the case were it not for the extra security). Zika was essentially unheard from except at soccer games and the new metro worked flawlessly.

Let this be the end of the "will they be ready?" story the media puts out every four years- every event was contested on time and all gold medals were given out. If brasil can do it...

Yes, considering the amount of negative publicity the city had to put up with leading up to the games I think they deserve a well done. ^

An Olympic games without controversy is pretty much unheard of no matter where it's staged.

Re "will they be ready?":

OT but FWIW in downtown Tokyo there's a big building (taking most or all of a block) well under construction (with work being actively done), maybe 20-30 stories at the moment, with signs (in Japanese that I don't understand) saying Tokyo 2020 Olympics and ParaOlympics. It's located between the Imperial and the Peninsula, facing Hibya Park. To me, this looks like Japan's preparations are well under way, although I cannot guess the purpose of the building in that location. Surely the Olympics cannot require so much prime office space?

Agree that the games were very good. However, I disagree on the security aspect of the games. In fact this was our major complaint about the games. To us, the security was very poor. We never saw security outside a metro. In fact at Jardim Oceanico we saw a large group of people ripping the clothes off of someone and a large pool of blood nearby. No security in site. At the venues you had to go through metal detectors. The only issue was that I have an artificial knee so I always set off the detector. When I pointed to my knee, they just waived me through. Never did a hand check or used a hand wand. I could have been carrying anything. Also, they never had any security on the trains / metro. So to me, the security was very poor and they were lucky that nothing major happened at the venues.

Lucky? Brazil allocated a lot of resources for security too. Not all of which was visible to everyone.

The real question is how much money Brazil may have ended up wasting on all of this. Spending money on big, nationalistic flag waving shows that are very expensive may not be the best use of money in countries that have far more pressing issues to address than some entertainment feel-good program to showcase a country to the world.

Just another note from a satisfied visitor. I have done a bit of Brazil-bashing at times, but from my perspective, everything went without a hitch during my visit to Rio last week. Yes, I visited during the second week so they had a chance to fix some of the initial problems, but I was quite happy to have no problems with the transit. In particular, after late-night departures from the Estadio Olimpico and the Olympic Park over in Barra, I had no problem getting on a BRT or train quickly and getting on my way. All in all, I had no problems at all, and had a great time. Nice job to the people in Rio!

The Olympics was priceless!!!

Most tourists probably wouldn't have noticed my ordinary looking female friend, pulled from her normal job at ABIN in another major city, in everyday plain clothes, appearing like just another tourist alongside her cohorts.
Just as most tourists wouldn't know a stain on the floor from an umbanda ritual site on a street corner or an unassuming place elsewhere.

I spent 8 days in Rio during the Olympics. Super Super fun, efficient, very few issues. Security was GREAT, anyone complaining about that is completely nuts-- for them to have had no major incidents at such a huge international event (when the Brussels and Istanbul airports, Brussels city, Paris, and Orlando have had huge events in recent months) located in a 3rd world country-- is amazing. I have been to Brazil many times in the recent years and am simply thrilled at how well it went.
Ticketing, public transit, security, it all went without a hitch. I went to 10 events in 7 days at 5 different venues.
Can't wait for Tokyo!

Hey I wanted to shout out a huge thanks for letting me know about this. I happened to be in Rio from the 8th to 15th, so was able to take advantage of the party 3 of the 4 nights. They had around 500 guests on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, and about 700 for Saturday (featuring Nadia Comaneci). Catering was good, drinks were great (and unlimited), staff was excellent. It was a great venue (amazingly at one of the nicest, if not THE nicest, hotels in Rio, the Copacabana Palace).

A little anecdote: At the mens Synchronized Diving event on Wednesday the 10th, a woman asked me about the events I'd be going to, and I mentioned the Chase United party, asking her if she had this card, because it sounded like a nice party.
The woman she was with, previously silent, leaned over and rolled her eyes at me: "YOU aren't getting into THAT party. My husband put up the TVs for those events, and believe me, they don't just let ANYONE into that party."
I challenged her that I'd read the Chase Visa promo online and it sure looked like I was going to be able to attend. She laughed and said, "Haha, let me know how that goes."
So just to let her know, it was fantastic.
And as Edina Monsoon said in one of my favorite AbFab scenes, "You work in a shop, you know. You can drop the attitude." Just switch to: "Your husband puts up TVs, you know. You can drop the attitude."

Was the party on the second floor outdoor patio area over the front entrance and looking toward the beach? What was the deal with hotel security, which seemed quite strict about not letting people enter
who weren't hotel guests?

Also, did DL give you trouble about going to Brazil without a visa? For me, on two trips, it was a big issue for me five times, at MSP and at my connecting airport (ATL and DTW) plus when trying to do OLCI for the second, but not the first, trip. IMO DL really needs to do something about their agents who cannot use TIMATIC properly.