For the first time since 2004, Michael Phelps was not the biggest male headliner for swimming coming out of the Olympics.
It was Ryan Lochte, for all the wrong reasons.
Phelps wasn't within miles of that gas station in the wee hours of the morning when Lochte, with three other male swimmers, acted like a spoiled 10-year-old -- and not because he, and the others, relieved themselves behind the gas station.
It was because he fabricated a story that made him look more like John Wayne than an untrained 8-week-old puppy. It was a lie predicated on the pre-Olympic stories of crime in Rio, which are real but took a backseat to the games.
Why he would do that lives deep in his heart and psyche.
After more than a week of he said, no, he said, it seems as if this was a lose-lose.
Lochte, who is paying dearly for damage done to his image and to his bank account -- four sponsors dropped him Monday -- shouldn't have lied, but the Brazilian security guards, who have been identified as prison guards working off-duty, shouldn't have pulled guns, either.
It might have been worse if not for a bilingual disc jockey who witnessed the whole thing and stepped in to translate once guns were drawn.
The Brazilians, who obviously didn't come out of this looking good, either, claim the guards demanded money for damage caused when Lochte, for whatever reason, pulled a canvas sign down from a wall, tearing it.
The other side of that story could look a little like extortion from security guys in uniform, with badges and toting guns, to protect a gas station.
Lochte's first version -- an "overexaggeration," according to an interview he did later -- had him staring down armed Brazilian cops.
If it had been true, for the first time, he would have been bigger than Phelps.
His personal website claims many feel he is the greatest swimmer in the world, and that he is a transcendent figure in the Olympic world.
At best, he's a distant second in Olympic achievements to Phelps, who, for the record, refused to give an interview to a Baltimore TV station about his accomplishments in the Olympics when he landed in the states.
Phelps has won 23 gold medals in five Olympics and a total of 28, with three silver and two bronze medals in the collection. Of that total, 13 gold medals, two silvers and one bronze came from individual events.
Lochte has won six gold medals, two in individual events; three silvers, two in individual events; and three bronzes, all in individual events. His nonindividual medals usually were as part of a team that also featured Phelps.
If the likelihood of medal envy isn't enough, both are staring at retirement: Phelps is 31 and Lochte 32. It has been reported Phelps' net worth is $55 million and Lochte's is $6 million.
Phelps would have been worth more, but he lost some endorsements in 2009 when a picture was leaked of him smoking marijuana at a party.
This week, Lochte's sponsors were dropping like Nintendo stock did last month when it admitted it didn't own Pokemon Go.
While Rio and Brazilian officials look like they tried to cover up their poor handling of the situation, what it did, again, was make male swimmers from America look like a bunch of over-indulged fraternity boys with huge trust funds.
Obviously, they were not the only Olympians to party in Rio, but when you have been celebrated around the world for being the fastest swimmers on Earth, you are not going to be invincible or invisible.
If American swimmers don't want to look like spoiled brats, then don't act like it.
Sports on 08/24/2016