United States swimmers Ryan Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen have been in the centre of controversy after claiming that they had been robbed at gunpoint while in Rio for the Olympic Games before CCTV footage was discovered which suggested that their story may have been fabricated, and that the group were actually forced to pay damages after vandalising a petrol station.
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The 12-time Olympics medalist said earlier this week he and three other USA swimmers – Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and James Feigen, were robbed at gunpoint Sunday.
Ostrow told USA TODAY Sports that police in Rio should investigate the two security guards who pulled their weapons on the U.S. swimmers and demanded payment for the damage they caused at a gas station.
US Olympic Committee chief Scott Blackmun also clarified the incident involving the swimmers, apologizing for a “distracting ordeal”.
On Friday Lochte apologized via Instagram “for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events”.
He said he accepted responsibility for his role in the case and had “learned some valuable lessons”.
It was only after police declared the story bogus – saying that the four had only been detained by security and made to pay compensation for drunken vandalization of a gas station bathroom – that Lochte finally came clean.
The story is said to have embarrassed the IOC and the US Olympics Committee (USOC), which has described the behaviour of the sportsmen as “not acceptable”.
In the swimmers’ original version of events, Lochte and three fellow swimmers said their taxi was pulled over and they were robbed at gunpoint early in the morning of August 14.
A warrant revealed that Lochte gave a different story from one of his teammates in a deposition, where he said he was robbed of $400 by one armed robber.
Ultimately, Lochte and teammate James Feigen were indicted by Rio civil police for falsely reporting a crime.
When investigating the now known to be false claims police grew suspicious after the swimmers – Gunnar Bentz, 20, Jack Conger, 21, Jimmy Feign, 26, and Lochte – were unable to provide key details about the incident.
He refers to having “a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave” – seemingly in contrast to his team-mates’ statements about having not been victims of a robbery.
Police said that instead of being robbed, one of the swimmers had vandalized a petrol station after the group stopped the taxi there to use a bathroom.
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The lawyer for the fourth United States of America swimmer, James Feigen, said the athlete would make a $10,800 “donation” and leave Brazil later in the day.
