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Over the weekend, Ryan Lochte claimed he was mugged at gunpoint in Rio. Lochte was traveling and partying with other swimmers, and they left the Olympic village to celebrate a friend’s birthday. While traveling by taxi back to the Olympic village, Lochte claimed the taxi was stopped by armed gunmen who took his wallet and left his phone. Lochte contacted his mom initially, and he and the other swimmers somehow made their way back to the Olympic village. Lochte even told his story to Billy Bush, and he seemed like he was still in shock.

I believed Lochte’s story because A) it seemed like a pretty believable story and B) um, why would Lochte lie? And C) Lochte isn’t the brightest bulb, but he’s not a chronic liar and fabricator. If anything, I would say his lack of intelligence means he’s probably telling the truth, that he is incapable of making up that kind of story. In any case, he had no reason to lie and I don’t understand why people would doubt his story at all. Still, the International Olympic Committee has been doing damage control about a number of issues in Rio, and at first the IOC flat-out denied that the robbery happened, then they begrudgingly admitted that something happened and that Lochte and the other swimmers were “working with authorities.” Well, guess what? The Rio police “have found no evidence” that the incident occurred. Uh-huh.

Police in Rio say they’ve found no evidence supporting Ryan Lochte’s claim that he and three other swimmers were robbed at gunpoint while in the Brazil for the 2016 Olympic Games, according to the Associated Press.

The 32-year-old Olympian told NBC that he and his fellow athletes were held up after robbers posing as police officers pulled them over in a taxi. But police have not been able to find their taxi driver or witnesses, and they say the swimmers were unable to provide key details in police interviews, the AP reports. The United States Olympic Committee confirmed the incident in a statement and two sources with the U.S. Team confirmed to PEOPLE that Lochte was robbed, but had no additional details.

“Everything’s up in the air now,” the source said. “But we know that something happened last night and that it really shook Ryan up.”

Lochte’s lawyer, Jeff Ostrow, told the AP that there was no doubt that the robbery happened and Lochte hadn’t been leaving his hotel room since.

“This happened the way he described it,” Ostrow said. “Ryan was a hundred percent cooperative and fully available when they reached out to us for an interview.” He added: “It doesn’t behoove Ryan and anyone else to make up a story.”

[From People]

I know this is a terrible thought, but isn’t this what female victims go through every day? It’s so shocking when it happens to a man – no one believes his story, the police are uncooperative, everyone is second-guessing the victim and going through his story for contradictions. When really, isn’t this just a case of the police not giving a sh-t and trying to bury this story? Just because the Rio police have found “no evidence,” does that negate Lochte’s experience?

USA Today has a lengthy take on what happened after the robbery with Lochte and the US Olympic bureaucracy – go here to read. Lochte didn’t initially go to the Rio police and the USOC because he thought he would get into trouble, I guess for being outside of the Olympic village (which is not a requirement of athletes, by the way). People keep describing Lochte as really “shaken up,” which is just further proof (to me) that he’s telling the truth.

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