Swimmer's Daily

  • The Rio Games are over, and we have learned a lot. We’ve learned that being a horse is the best job at the Olympics, that a butt-baring Irish bureaucrat is the biggest jerk at the Olympics, and that removing your clothes and dumping them on the scorers’ table is no way to lodge a complaint about a wrestling match. We’ve learned that Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian and that Ryan Lochte is the drunkest. But mostly we’ve confirmed something we already knew: The United States of America is really, really, really good at the Olympics.

    Good doesn’t quite describe how good the U.S. is at the Olympics. Goooooooood sort of gets there, but not quite. For the second straight Summer Games, the U.S. led all countries in the overall medal count, winning 121 in total: 46 gold, 37 silver, and 38 bronze. (China ran a distant second with 70 total medals; Great Britain, with 67, came in third.) The U.S. has now led all nations in the medal count in every individual Summer Games since 1996. There has been a lot of talk this year about America’s decline in greatness. But it’s good to know there remains at least one endeavor at which the United States is inarguably the best in the world. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

    But wait—is it possible we’re too good at the Olympics? Despite America’s sustained dominance in the pool, on the track, and on the various weird gymnastics apparatuses, the Rio Games were not a ratings bonanza for NBC. Over the past two weeks, according to Bloomberg, NBC pulled primetime ratings that were 17 percent worse than the ratings they got for the 2012 London Games. What’s more, viewership in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic dropped by 25 percent from London to Rio de Janeiro. The U.S. crushed it at the Olympics this year. America yawned and played Pokémon Go.

    Read Slate

  • For Team USA it doesn’t get much better than this.

    The Americans may not have made a ton of friends in Brazil, given their dust-ups with the law, and all that parading around with an index finger either raised in victory or pointed at other teams’ athletes for being dopers, while Team USA itself had 11 members who had previously tested positive for banned substances.

    The medal races became an absolute blowout though—even more than The Wall Street Journal predicted. The U.S. won more medals (121) than it has at any Summer Games except 1984, when many of the Soviet countries boycotted.

    Read Wall Street Journal

  • Veteran swimmer Ryan Lochte’s brush with Rio police has already hurt his appeal to sponsors – but for two lesser-known team mates, it means they may never get a chance to sign their first major deal.

    Lochte has several major sponsors, including fashion houseRalph Lauren, which took down any reference to the gold medalist on its website on Friday, and swimwear company Speedo which has said it is following the situation.

    But for team mates Gunnar Bentz, 20, and Jack Conger, 21, who are also embroiled in what social media has termed #LochteGate, going professional and scoring future business opportunities are now next to impossible, marketers say.

    Read Fortune

    Read also “What does the Ryan Lochte scandal mean for the future of U.S. men’s swimming?”

    https://youtu.be/7boVIhF_LOY

  • “In this day and age, there’s one pretty important rule that anybody in the public eye should think about: Don’t lie,” said Joe Favorito, a sports marketing expert and professor at Columbia. “We live in a world where everything is going to be exposed. Brands are always looking for honest and authentic representatives because there’s so much competition. There are so many Olympic athletes who you can choose from. You don’t need any nonsense.”

  • Some of Rio’s champions share their breakfast choice, good luck charms, and winning mindset.

  • The International Olympic Committee has set up a disciplinary commission to investigate the incident involving Ryan Lochte and three of his U.S. swimming teammates at a Rio de Janeiro gas station.

    IOC spokesman Mark Adams told The Associated Press the panel was formed Friday to look into the behavior of Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen.

    Adams had no other immediate details.

    IOC disciplinary commissions have the power to issue sanctions, but it is an entity separate from the U.S. Olympic Committee, USA Swimming and FINA, the international governing body for swimming.
    See ESPN

    https://youtu.be/zoasm5DIr-A

  • Gunnar Bentz, one of the four U.S. swimmers caught up in the gas station scandal in Rio, has released a statement through the University of Georgia detailing the events of the night in question. Parts of Bentz’s account stand at odds with the alleged robbery story told by teammate Ryan Lochte.

    Read NBC and full statement on georgiadogs.com

    https://youtu.be/_41vkKJKHbw

    Aug. 19, 2016
    Statement by University of Georgia Swimmer Gunnar Bentz

    “I want to offer a sincere apology to the United States Olympic Committee, USA Swimming, the extraordinary women and men of Team USA, and the University of Georgia. Being a member of the Olympic Swimming Team was an honor and a dream come true. The accomplishments of my teammates were awe-inspiring and I’m so pleased I got to see them up close. I regret this situation has drawn attention away from the Olympics, which have been hosted so incredibly well by Brazil and its citizens.

    “While I am anxious to put this matter behind me and rejoin my Georgia teammates in classes, practices and competitions, I feel compelled to stress several key points.

    1. I was never a suspect in the case from the beginning (Brazilian law enforcement officials saw me only as a witness).
    2. I never made a false statement to anyone at any time.

    “I also want to be forthright about the details of what transpired last Sunday. What follows is consistent with the account I gave to the Brazilian authorities when I was interviewed for the first and only time on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro:

    “After attending an event with several swimmers from different nations, I left in a taxicab along with U.S. swimmers Jack Conger, Jimmy Feigen and Ryan Lochte around 6 a.m. On the way back to the Olympic Village, we pulled into a convenience store to use the restroom. There was no restroom inside, so we foolishly relieved ourselves on the backside of the building behind some bushes. There was a locked door out back and I did not witness anyone breaking it open. I am unsure why, but while we were in that area, Ryan pulled to the ground a framed metal advertisement that was loosely anchored to the brick wall. I then suggested to everyone that we needed to leave the area and we returned to the taxi.

    “Two men, whom I believe to have been security guards, then instructed us to exit the vehicle. No guns were drawn during this exchange, but we did see a gun tucked into one of the guard’s waistband. As Jimmy and Jack were walking away from the vehicle, the first security guard held up a badge to me and drew his handgun. I yelled to them to come back toward us and they complied. Then the second guard drew his weapon and both guards pointed their guns at us and yelled at us to sit on a nearby sidewalk.
    “Again, I cannot speak to his actions, but Ryan stood up and began to yell at the guards. After Jack and I both tugged at him in an attempt to get him to sit back down, Ryan and the security guards had a heated verbal exchange, but no physical contact was made.

    “A man that I believe to be a customer approached us and offered to help as he spoke both English and Portuguese. Understandably, we were frightened and confused during this time. Through the interpreter, one of the guards said that we needed to pay them in order to leave. I gave them what I had in my wallet, which was a $20 bill, and Jimmy gave them 100 Reals, which is about $50 in total. They lowered the guns and I used hand gestures to ask if it was okay to leave and they said yes. We walked about a block down the street and hailed another taxi to return to the Village.

    “Videos of this situation have been emerging the last several days. However, I am confident that some video angles have not been shown that would further substantiate my account. I also believe some scenes have been skipped over. Additionally, I would like to stress that our original taxi was not pulled over; the only occupants of the taxi were the four of us and the driver; and to my knowledge, there was no damage done to the door or the inside of the restroom.

    “I am so thankful for the love and support of my family, my friends and my teammates during this time. Without question, I am taking away a valuable life lesson from this situation. In everything I do, I am representing my family, my country and my school. I will not take that responsibility lightly.”

    — Gunnar Bentz, Aug. 19, 2016

  • Jimmy Feigen, a U.S. Olympic swimmer apparently connected to the scandal involving Ryan Lochte, has reportedly agreed to donate $11,000 to a charity in Brazil in return for being allowed to leave the country. Two other swimmers, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz, have already been allowed to return to the United States. The USOC is apologizing to Brazil, saying surveillance video confirms that Lochte’s story of being robbed in Rio was fabricated. NBC’s Keir Simmons reports for TODAY from Rio.