Lochte said in a lengthy post on Instagram Friday that he was apologizing for his role in taking the focus away from other Olympic athletes.
Advertisement
In a statement released late Friday, he says he never saw anyone break down a bathroom door, and that the swimmers relieved themselves on nearby bushes after a night out. “I accept responsibility for my role in this happening and have learned some valuable lessons”.
He said he should have been “more careful and candid” in his account but it was “traumatic” to have a man point a gun at him in a foreign country.
But according to Bentz, the four swimmers used a translator’s help to determine what the armed men, who he described as “security guards”, were saying, and the only money they were demanding was repayment for the damages that had just been caused to the gas station.
Paes said on Friday that the behavior of the four swimmers did not represent the good spirit that the rest of the American delegation had shown. Nearly as soon as the news broke, the validity of Lochte’s claims came under fire and, just yesterday, Bentz and Conger were pulled off a flight that was supposed to take them home and taken in for questioning by police. Meanwhile, Brazilian authorities pulled Conger and Gunnar Bentz off their return flight and detained them for “several hours” Wednesday night, per Simon Romero and Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times.
“I was never a suspect in the case from the beginning (Brazilian law enforcement officials saw me only as a witness)”, Bentz said, apologizing to the United States Olympic Committee, the US swimming team and the University of Georgia.
“Now Lochte says “.there has been too much said”.
Lochte returned home to the United States before the situation began to spiral out of control in Brazil. The incident was not reported to Brazilian police, but came to light when Lochte’s mother spoke of it to reporters. Brazilian authorities said the athletes had fabricated the robbery story after vandalizing a gas station bathroom.
The International Olympic Committee initially denied a robbery occurred.
The swimmers flew home on Thursday after a local crowd jeered them, calling them “liars” and “fakes”. They then walked a block down the street and took another taxi back to the Olympic Village.
Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada told reporters, “They competed under enormous pressure”. Later on, Jimmy Feigen also agreed to pay almost $11,000 to a Brazilian charity as part of a settlement with a Rio judge.
Jimmy Feigen, the third teammate, only got his passport back when he agreed to pay almost.
Advertisement
Melaragno did not specify where the money will go, but the term “institution” can be taken to mean charity. $11,000 to avoid prosecution.
