We Can Certainly Learn Some Things From Lochte
August 24, 2016 at 2:52 a.m.
By Roger Grossman-
We’ll hear NBC’s Tom Hammond screaming “HE’S STILL INVINCIBLE” as Usain Bolt cruised across the finish line in 9.79 seconds in the 100-meter dash.
We’ll remember Dan Hicks’ call of Lilly King touching the wall first and then seeking out her Russian rival to remind her of who was really No. 1.
And we will perhaps get teary-eyed as our minds reflect on how these games produced the first African-American woman to win gold in the Olympic pool, a 23rd gold medal for Michael Phelps, and places at the top of the medal stands for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
But, we also will hear one other voice for months and years to come when we look back on the Rio games ... Matt Lauer’s.
The longtime NBC Today Show host was at the epicenter of what stole the headlines for the final week of the Olympic fortnight. He was the one who pulled American swimmer Ryan Lochte aside to find out what really happened 10 days ago at that gas station in Rio.
He was the one who got us closer to the truth.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Lochte and three teammates you have never heard of until now were out until the early morning hours at a building where the French contingency was having a party.
On their way back to the Olympic village, they stopped at a gas station.
And that gas station is where the Rio Olympics changed forever.
Lochte originally claimed that he and his buddies were held up at gunpoint for cash and their cell phones by people posing as police.
Turns out, they made up about half of the story.
Most of us will never know what it’s like to compete on the global level in anything, but there are lessons we can learn from Lochte and the others that we can all implement every day and teach to our children and those young people we have influence on.
1. Nothing good ever happens in public after midnight. Examine the arrests of professional athletes, and you will find that a large percentage of them occur at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. The Law of Diminishing Returns applies not only in business, but also in regular life. There comes that point when the night changes to morning and too much of a good thing turns into not-as-good of a thing.
2. Tell the truth the first time. We try to explain this to our kids, right? We tell them “even if you have done something wrong, if you come to us and tell us the whole truth right away, it will be much better for you.”
Despite appearing to vandalize the bathroom at the now most famous gas station in Rio, if Lochte would have come back to the Athlete’s Village and told the truth about what happened, not too many people would have said anything. But by taking a handful of facts and coloring it with things that were just not true at all, he literally created an international incident. The city of Rio went into these games with the burden of proof on it that it could pull off these Olympics, and this was really the only blemish. But it was a big blemish, and it took one look at the surveillance videos to figure out that the boys’ stories didn’t add up.
3. Home games are easier. When you do what Lochte and the others did, and you are in a foreign country, you have just tripled your trouble. When my wife and I went to China to get our kids in 2010 and 2015, we were encouraged to get out of our hotel rooms and enjoy the people and sights of the places we visited – but do not get arrested. If these games were in Los Angeles, for example, this would have been much easier to get smoothed over. Police in Rio were sensitive about the city’s image, and they set out to protect it. Who can blame them for that? Lochte picked the wrong place and time to make a mountain out of a mole hill.
4. Be careful who you hang out with. The chance to hang out with a guy like Lochte in Rio when your competitions had ended was understandably too good to pass up, but you have to understand that the closer you get to the fire the better your chance of getting burned. Those three guys made what seemed like an easy choice, but it cost them dearly in the end. Rule of thumb: “Be careful when the male leader of your group dyes his hair gray just before the Olympics.”
It was a great Olympics, but it was tarnished by one athlete, and that’s too bad.
We’ll hear NBC’s Tom Hammond screaming “HE’S STILL INVINCIBLE” as Usain Bolt cruised across the finish line in 9.79 seconds in the 100-meter dash.
We’ll remember Dan Hicks’ call of Lilly King touching the wall first and then seeking out her Russian rival to remind her of who was really No. 1.
And we will perhaps get teary-eyed as our minds reflect on how these games produced the first African-American woman to win gold in the Olympic pool, a 23rd gold medal for Michael Phelps, and places at the top of the medal stands for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
But, we also will hear one other voice for months and years to come when we look back on the Rio games ... Matt Lauer’s.
The longtime NBC Today Show host was at the epicenter of what stole the headlines for the final week of the Olympic fortnight. He was the one who pulled American swimmer Ryan Lochte aside to find out what really happened 10 days ago at that gas station in Rio.
He was the one who got us closer to the truth.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Lochte and three teammates you have never heard of until now were out until the early morning hours at a building where the French contingency was having a party.
On their way back to the Olympic village, they stopped at a gas station.
And that gas station is where the Rio Olympics changed forever.
Lochte originally claimed that he and his buddies were held up at gunpoint for cash and their cell phones by people posing as police.
Turns out, they made up about half of the story.
Most of us will never know what it’s like to compete on the global level in anything, but there are lessons we can learn from Lochte and the others that we can all implement every day and teach to our children and those young people we have influence on.
1. Nothing good ever happens in public after midnight. Examine the arrests of professional athletes, and you will find that a large percentage of them occur at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. The Law of Diminishing Returns applies not only in business, but also in regular life. There comes that point when the night changes to morning and too much of a good thing turns into not-as-good of a thing.
2. Tell the truth the first time. We try to explain this to our kids, right? We tell them “even if you have done something wrong, if you come to us and tell us the whole truth right away, it will be much better for you.”
Despite appearing to vandalize the bathroom at the now most famous gas station in Rio, if Lochte would have come back to the Athlete’s Village and told the truth about what happened, not too many people would have said anything. But by taking a handful of facts and coloring it with things that were just not true at all, he literally created an international incident. The city of Rio went into these games with the burden of proof on it that it could pull off these Olympics, and this was really the only blemish. But it was a big blemish, and it took one look at the surveillance videos to figure out that the boys’ stories didn’t add up.
3. Home games are easier. When you do what Lochte and the others did, and you are in a foreign country, you have just tripled your trouble. When my wife and I went to China to get our kids in 2010 and 2015, we were encouraged to get out of our hotel rooms and enjoy the people and sights of the places we visited – but do not get arrested. If these games were in Los Angeles, for example, this would have been much easier to get smoothed over. Police in Rio were sensitive about the city’s image, and they set out to protect it. Who can blame them for that? Lochte picked the wrong place and time to make a mountain out of a mole hill.
4. Be careful who you hang out with. The chance to hang out with a guy like Lochte in Rio when your competitions had ended was understandably too good to pass up, but you have to understand that the closer you get to the fire the better your chance of getting burned. Those three guys made what seemed like an easy choice, but it cost them dearly in the end. Rule of thumb: “Be careful when the male leader of your group dyes his hair gray just before the Olympics.”
It was a great Olympics, but it was tarnished by one athlete, and that’s too bad.
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