A police official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press that police can not find their taxi driver or witnesses.
Advertisement
It was many hours before Lochte met with US authorities, according to Jeff Ostrow, Lochte’s attorney.
Mario Andrada, chief spokesman of Rio 2016, said at Monday’s press briefing: “Everybody saw the confirmation by the USA swimmers that indeed they were held up when returning to the Olympic Village”.
U.S. Olympic gold swimmer Ryan Lochte and three of his teammates had reportedly been robbed at gunpoint in Rio.
“It doesn’t behoove Ryan and anyone else to make up a story”, Ostrow said.
According to statements from Lochte and the United States Olympic Committee, the swimmers were returning to the athletes village by taxi after a night out at the French Olympic team’s hospitality house in the Rodrigo de Freitas area in the upscale south zone of the city.
Security has been a major concern at the Rio Olympics, with several thefts and robberies reported and a number of controlled explosions of suspicious bags. Lochte, 32, won his 12th Olympic medal as part of the 4×200 freestyle relay.
The chief of security was mugged at knife-point on the night of the opening ceremony, two coaches were robbed in Ipanema and some athletes saw their belongings stolen during a fire drill at the Olympic village, the New York Times wrote.
“The police are looking for the cab driver who drove them back, who seemed to have more information about this”, Andrada said.
“We got pulled over, in the taxi, and these guys came out with a police badge, no lights, no nothing – just a police badge and they pulled us over”, Lochte told NBC.
One of the fake officers put a cocked gun to Lochte’s forehead and took his money and wallet, the swimmer told NBC’s “Today” show.
Lochte and the U.S.O.C. initially denied the incident occurred.
Also Monday, the International Olympic Committee’s spokesman, Mark Adams, explained his initial denial that any incident involving Lochte had occured.
Advertisement
Lochte told USA Today Sports on Tuesday that the discrepancy was the result of he and his teammates’ fears that they would get in trouble if they told the USOC about the incident.
