Foul Play

 Ryan Lochte is widely considered the greatest competitive swimmer of all time.  He is a four-time Olympian and a 12-time Olympic medalist, including six gold medals. He is also known for his famous rivalry with Michael Phelps, particularly in the individual medley events. Despite his impressive career, Ryan Lochte will always be defined by the events of that fateful night in Rio de Janeiro. The Initial Account of the Incident It was the morning of August 14, 2016, when Ryan Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz, and Jack Conger were robbed during the 2016 Summer Olympics. A group of armed men showed flased a "police badge" to the Olympians and forced them out of their taxi at gunpoint in the early morning hours. The story made headlines that same day after a chance encounter between Lochte's mother and Fox Sports Australia broadcaster Ben Way. Way tweeted that "Ryan Lochte has been held up at gunpoint." This resulted in an immediate denial from International Olymp...

  Imagine you are a young woman and you open one of your dating apps. You get matched with a famous NFL player, and naturally, you Google him to see if he's legit. Nothing tells you this dude is fake. You see his social media page, which shows off his lavish lifestyle, so you decide to pursue the relationship. Before you know it, he professes his love and convinces you to invest in his real estate venture, promising you a future together. And then it turns out it was all a lie. The real estate venture was fraudulent, the relationship was false, and most importantly, the man you believed was an NFL player turned out to be a scammer. This isn't a story about one woman. This is a story about how more than a dozen women were scammed out of  millions by a man claiming to be a San Francisco 49ers wide receiver.  Daejon Love created dating profiles on apps like Hinge, Bumble, and Tinder, pretending to be an NFL player or, at times, a wealthy Swiss real estate developer. As part ...

  On April 21, 1980, Rosie Ruiz became the fastest woman to win the Boston Marathon with an impressive time of 2:31:56, the fastest ever recorded by a woman at the time. However, Rosie's historic win raised more suspicion than praise, as spectators and fellow runners wondered how someone could run a marathon, set a record, and still not seem exhausted.   The catch? Part of her race happened underground.  Rosie wasn't a well-known name amongst elite runners. She didn't grow up as a competitive athlete. She earned a degree in music from Wayne State College and later worked at a commodities firm in New York City.  But all that changed when she qualified for the 1979 New York City Marathon.  Rosie didn't qualify through a previous marathon; in fact, it was her first marathon. She entered the race through the regular application process. However, she submitted it after the deadline but was able to receive special permission after claiming she was dying of brain ...

  Sports Scandals (A working title)- An Introduction  Sometimes the most interesting thing is not always the scorelines or record-breaking performances. Sometimes it’s the controversies; sometimes it's the actions off the field. Even though I enjoy watching sports, I don’t consider myself a sports fanatic. For me, what makes sports interesting is not the stats or the records; it's the narratives–the human behind the athlete. For my podcast and blog, I will go deeper into the stories that not only captivated the sports world but also captivated audiences everywhere.  Whether it's the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan scandal or the Lance Armstrong doping scandal. It didn’t matter whether you were a fan of the athlete or a fan of the sport. It made you stop. It made you look. And maybe even taught you something you never knew before. In each blog, I would take one scandal that captivated the sports world, get deeper into the story, and explore how it changed the sport for better...