RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – The mystery behind the claim that US swimmer Ryan Lochte and three teammates were robbed after a night of partying in Rio de Janeiro deepened Thursday, after officials first blamed him for making it up – then backtracked on some details and acknowledged the Olympians had been confronted by security guards with guns.
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The six-time Olympic gold medalist has already returned home, but his compatriots are having their stay in Rio extended while local authorities probe their claims of being held up at gunpoint by criminals dressed as cops in the early hours of Sunday morning.
A spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee confirmed that Conger and Bentz were removed by Brazilian authorities from their flight home.
The removal of the swimmers from the plane Wednesday night follows reports that a Brazilian judge issued a search and seizure warrant for Lochte’s and Feigen’s passports as questions emerged about their accounts.
A manager asked the swimmers to pay for the broken door and they gave him an undisclosed amount of money, the official said. “We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance”.
An attorney for Lochte, Jeff Ostrow, brushed off suggestions of conflicting stories, saying the four swimmers’ accounts “are 95 percent consistent”.
The group did not call police, authorities said, and officers began investigating once they saw media reports in which Lochte’s mother spoke about the robbery. He cocked it, put it to my forehead and said get down, and I was like, I put my hands up.
Sergio Riera, an attorney for Conger and Bentz, said the swimmers were frightened and confused as to why they had been taken off their flight and over what they were being ordered to do by different authorities. Lochte also said the assailant pointed a gun at him rather than putting it to his head. So far, Lochte is the only one who is back on USA soil.
“The victims arrived with their physical and psychological integrity unshaken, even joking with one another”, Judge Keyla Blanc said of the footage.
The robbery that was or wasn’t has become the biggest spectacle outside of the Olympic venues in Rio, and given American swimming a black eye in Brazil after an otherwise remarkable run at the Summer Games.
The US Olympic Committee said the remaining three are cooperating with police. The swimmers said they had been intoxicated and could not remember what type and colour of taxi they were in, where the incident happened or what time the events occurred, police said. “It’s so clearly obvious that we had done nothing wrong in that particular case”. He now says the taxi wasn’t pulled over by men with a badge, but that they were robbed after stopping at a gas station, NBC reported.
Steve Bentz, father of Gunnar Bentz, when reached by phone late Wednesday night, said: “I really don’t want to say anything”, and hung up.
The Ryan Lochte robbery story just got the most weird update.
“They pulled us over”, Lochte said. Lochte said two men tried to force them to the ground, one pointing a gun inches from him when he refused.
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American Olympic swimmers Gunnar Bentz, center left, and Jack Conger, center right, leave the police station at Rio International airport early Thursday Aug. 18, 2016.
