US swimmer Ryan Lochte wore a dental grill of stars-and-stripes-shaped diamonds to collect a gold medal at one Olympic Games and caused a diplomatic spat in the next.
After the London Games in 2012, Lochte kept the US watching past the closing ceremony with his goofy attitude and screen-friendly looks.
There was a reality show, television interviews, and a failed attempt to trademark his synonym for yes: “Jeah”.
“It means, like, almost, like, everything,” Lochte explained in 2009.
Now, with this year’s competition over, Lochte is the center of attention again for claiming he and three team-mates were robbed at gunpoint in Rio. Officials swiftly provided strong evidence – including CCTV footage – contradicting his story, leading Lochte to apologize for what ended up being a drunken incident of vandalism at a gas station.
The episode challenged the years-old narrative of Lochte as the happy-go-lucky swimmerfrom sunny University of Florida.
The New York Post front page on Friday was covered with a topless Lochte under the headline “The Ugly American”. Inside, the paper declared that the swimmer was “everything the world hates about Americans”.
TOMORROW'S COVER: Ryan Lochte is everything the world hates about Americans https://t.co/A5wvURF54Y pic.twitter.com/WqNpI8wKOd
— New York Post (@nypost) August 18, 2016
Sally Jenkins, a columnist for the Washington Post, described him as “the dumbest bell that ever rang”.
“The 32-year-old swimmer is so landlocked in juvenility that he pulled an all-nighter with guys young enough to call him uncle,” added Jenkins.
The Brazilian press was equally as unforgiving.
“Lies” was the headline of the bestselling O Globo newspaper, followed by “American Olympic Committee admits errors of athletes and apologises to Rio” with a cartoon of a crossed-eyed Uncle Sam giving the world the finger.
The tabloid Meia Hora de Noticias (Half Hour of News) was even more damning on its front page: “Americans did a shit in a gas station and invented the biggest lie: Swimmer and his colleagues broke a toilet, exposed their genitals and fabricated a story that they were robbed,” it screamed in typically lewd and humorous fashion.
For many Brazilians, the incident highlighted how wealthy foreigners – and US citizens in particular – look down upon their country and often unfairly denigrate it. This feeling was captured in the headline of Extra, which roughly translates as “Police show gringos that Brazil is not the House of Ma Joana” - a term used to describe a bedlam where anything goes.
Lochte’s juvenile behavior is what propelled him to fame in 2012, which he left with five medals and enough of a fan following for the E! Network to give him a reality television show – What Would Ryan Lochte Do? (canceled after just one season).
During the London Games, his biggest scandal was the American flag-themed grill, which he was banned from wearing in his next four appearances at the podium because it was a uniform violation.
But now, Lochte, one of America’s most decorated swimmers, is 32 years old and on the record telling reporters that he and his four team-mates were “victims” who wouldn’t fabricate the story about being held up in Rio.
Even a Rio Olympics official played into the narrative of Lochte and his fellow swimmers’ juvenile innocence.
Mário Andrada, a spokesman for the Rio Olympics organizing committee, said in a statement about the gas station incident that “these kids were trying to have fun”, and no apologies were needed.
This forgiving reaction contrasts with that afforded another hero of the 2012 Games, US gymnast Gabby Douglas, who was condemned for not placing her hand on her heart during the national anthem.
When Lochte eventually apologized on Friday, it was fitting that he did so on Instagram, where Lochte has collected more than 1 million followers who witness his antics, poolside and otherwise.
Lochte said: “It’s traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country – with a language barrier – and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave, but regardless of the behavior of anyone else that night, I should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself and for that am sorry to my teammates, my fans, my fellow competitors, my sponsors and the hosts of this great event.”
