As his three teammates remained stuck in limbo with the Rio police, two of them taken off airplanes to be detained and questioned, Ryan Lochte sat at home, safely in the U.S., posting on social media.
He tweeted twice about his infamous blue-grey hair, and how he was thrilled to be dying it back to its original color. (His second tweet, about it being back to normal, was deleted likely because of the tone-deafness of the tweet amid the seriousness of the situation around Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger.)
My hair is going back to its normal color tomorrow 🙏
— Ryan Lochte (@RyanLochte) August 16, 2016
On Thursday morning, he posted a goofy video of him and fellow American swimmer Elizabeth Beisel, with whom Lochte is close to dating back to their days at the University of Florida, wishing her a happy birthday. Within hours, he had deleted the video after a deluge of negative comments underneath that criticized him for posting something so inconsequential and light while his teammates were literally not in possession of their own passports and the ability to leave Brazil.
Rio police said Thursday afternoon that Lochte and the three others fabricated a story of an armed robbery. Instead, the swimmers had broken down the door to an outdoor bathroom at a gas station, which prompted a confrontation with an armed security guard. A manager then asked the swimmers to pay for damages.
USA TODAY Sports' attempts to reach Lochte and his mom were unsuccessful.
