A news conference is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. “They had fun, they made a mistake, it’s part of life, life goes on”.
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A Brazilian judge ordered a probe, saying their story was full of inconsistencies.
While Lochte is now back in the United States, Conger, Bentz and Feigen are stuck in Brazil and need to give testimony regarding the events from Sunday morning.
“We can confirm that Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were removed from their flight to the United States by Brazilian authorities”, US Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky said.
Veloso said it’s up to the courts, but as far as he’s concerned the athletes should be able to leave the country. Witnesses, including a person who offered to translate for the swimmers, said they paid money to the manager before leaving.
“No robbery was committed against these athletes”.
The apparently high-profile crime touched a nerve in Rio. The incident caused an uproar and forced Olympic authorities into an apology.
There was a report overnight Wednesday in Britain’s Guardian newspaper that a British team member was held up at gunpoint, but was unharmed.
“The story did have some sense of validity but it didn’t bear out and it made them look bad worldwide”, he said.
The Daily Mail posted this video showing Ryan Lochte and fellow swimmers returning to the Olympic athletes’ village in Rio de Janeiro the night they were supposedly “robbed”.
“The guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, ‘Get down, ‘” Lochte said afterwards.
Ryan Lochte reportedly claimed the men stole the swimmers’ money and wallets, but left their phones and Olympic credentials.
NBC reported Wednesday night that Lochte backed off some of his earlier claims, saying the taxi wasn’t pulled over by men with a badge but rather the athletes were robbed after stopping at a gas station.
While the precise whereabouts of three Olympic swimmers detained in Rio remains unknown, a source familiar with the matter says they are being detained at hotels under representation of U.S. Olympic Committee attorneys.
The Shell service station is close to the Olympic Park where sporting action has been overshadowed over the past two weeks by a string of muggings and robberies, including incidents involving other athletes and two visiting government ministers.
A few of the swimmers then pushed on the door and broke it.
Brazil TV aired a video on Thursday that showed four U.S. Olympic swimmers did not tell the whole truth when they said they were robbed at gunpoint in an incident that has marred the image of South America’s first Olympic Games.
On Wednesday a Brazilian judge ordered the four athletes to surrender their passports and stay in Brazil as the investigation into the robbery continues; however, Lochte made it back to the US before the ruling could be enforced. Ostrow said Lochte had been staying in this hotel room and meant to go back to the USA soon.
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He said when he was interviewed by police about the incident that no one had suggested he needed to stay in Brazil, nor had any officials expressed doubts over his account of the robbery, NBC reported.
