Feigen and Lochte, along with Texas junior swimmer Jack Conger and Team USA swimmer Gunnar Bentz, claimed to have been robbed by armed individuals posing as police outside the Olympic village on Saturday night. However, no robbery actually occurred, according to AP.
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Ryan Lochte and James Feigen, the two swimmers who initially spoke to police and told them they’d been robbed in a taxi, have officially been indicted by Rio police for falsely reporting a crime, O Globo is reporting.
After surveillance footage showing Ryan Lochte, Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz, and Jimmy Feigen – four American Olympic swimmers – at a gas station in Rio de Janiero, Brazilian officials are arguing that Lochte’s original story the four men were robbed at gunpoint was a lie. The source said they damaged a bathroom door and staff said they tore down a poster and also urinated on the wall of station’s convenience store.
The official says a few of the swimmers then pushed on the door and broke it.
“These guys came here causing trouble … but we did not touch them at all”, the guard states.
Announcing that two swimmers have now flown out of a Rio airport after being detained by police, U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun is apologizing for how the pair and two other swimmers behaved in Brazil.
Gold medal victor Ryan Lochte and three others are being questioned for their role in vandalizing a local gas station.
Brazilian police held a press conference on Thursday afternoon to make their message clear.
“Any time the United States is cast in a negative light it’s definitely not ideal, but I can kind of see what Brazil has out of it too, because they don’t want to be cast in a bad or a negative light either”, he said.
Fernando Veloso, head of the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, confirmed that Feigen and his lawyers presented his version of events to the authorities on Thursday night.
Lochte, who announced his intention to move away from Charlotte less than 48 hours before the incident, returned to the US earlier in the week.
Three of the swimmers are being prevented from leaving Brazil pending the outcome of the police investigation.
While he’s medaled often in the Olympic pool, Lochte’s accomplishments have always been overshadowed by teammate Michael Phelps – the most decorated Olympian in history.
The New York Post spared no punches, saying Lochte “cried wolf and was called on it”, while the Washington Post said he represents a “special category of obnoxious American “bro”. “They had fun, they made a mistake, it’s part of life, life goes on, let’s go”.
Lochte had already returned to the US but the others stayed, and Conger and Bentz were pulled off a plane at the Rio airport.
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A spokesman for Air Weave, the official mattress supplier of the U.S. Olympic team, and another endorser of Lochte, said Thursday, “We are not in a position to comment at this time”.
