Seven days after an incident that will in part define the Rio Olympics, "details are becoming clearer about what happened during a gas station encounter between four U.S. swimmers and security guards, and not everyone has concluded Ryan Lochte and his teammates are entirely in the wrong or that the account offered by Rio authorities is entirely accurate," according to Barnes & Meeks of USA TODAY. Lochte has "admitted he exaggerated his initial description of how the four men were stopped in their taxi and robbed by men who flashed badges." But a narrative of the night’s events -- constructed by USA TODAY Sports from witness statements, official investigations, surveillance videos and media reports -- "supports Lochte’s later account in which he said he thought the swimmers were being robbed when they were approached at a gas station by armed men who flashed badges, pointed guns at them and demanded money." A Brazilian judge said that police "might have been hasty in determining the security guards, by how they dealt with the swimmers, did not commit a robbery." A lawyer who has practiced in Brazil for 25 years said that "she does not think the actions of Lochte and teammate Jimmy Feigen constitute the filing of a false police report as defined under Brazilian law." An extensive review of surveillance footage by a USA TODAY Sports videographer who also visited the gas station "supports swimmer Gunnar Bentz’s claim that he did not see anyone vandalize the restroom, an allegation that in particular heightened media portrayals of the four as obnoxious Americans behaving recklessly in a foreign country." It is clear from all accounts that a Portuguese-English language barrier "played a major role in the incident and that a bilingual Brazilian witness who stepped forward at the scene was critical in preventing a tense situation from escalating." The witness, Fernando Deluz, said that "he got involved after one of the guards pulled a gun on the men." Deluz, a disc jockey, said, "As soon as they drew their weapon, that's when I got worried." At a news conference Thursday, Rio Police Chief Fernando Veloso "characterized the athletes' actions at the gas station as vandalism." He said that they also had "broken a soap dispenser and mirror inside the restroom." Reports "quickly grew that the Americans had trashed the restroom." A USA TODAY Sports videographer who visited the bathroom Thursday "found no damage to soap dispensers and mirrors and said none of those items appeared to be new." Some media accounts "suggested the men had broken down a door, which USA TODAY Sports also did not observe" (USA TODAY, 8/22).
