“And I pointedly said to him ‘you had said before it was placed on your forehead and cocked.’ He said, ‘No, that is not exactly what happened.’ I think he feels it was more of a traumatic mischaracterization”.
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“That’s why I’m taking full responsibility for it, because I over-exaggerated the story”, Lochte said.
In a previous statement, Lochte has apologized for his behavior in a statement and said that he was traumatized by being out in a foreign country with a language barrier and having a stranger point a gun at him and demand money.
“We just wanted to get out of there”, Lochte said, adding the swimmers were frightened.
Lochte claimed during the games that he and three other swimmers were held up at gunpoint after leaving a party.
Lauer questioned Lochte’s story in the clip of the interview, asking why if the swimmers were speaking through an impromptu translator that they viewed that as a robbery rather than a settlement. “Whether you call it a robbery, whether you call it extortion or us paying for the damages like, we don’t know”.
Since then, not only has Lochte had trouble staying true to his version of events, but recent reports also allege that the swimmers didn’t just lie, but they also vandalized a petrol station and urinated in public.
In fact, it’s been pretty much radio silence from Lochte since he got back home.
In an interview with NBC that aired in part on Saturday evening, Lochte told Matt Lauer that he embellished the initial story in which a guy with a badge held a gun to his head.
“I left details out, which that’s why I’m in this mess”, Lochte said in response.
Both interviews were taped in Manhattan on Saturday, according to Hiltzik Strategies, the firm run by Matthew Hiltzik, a well-known public relations executive who was retained by Lochte earlier this week. “They were not victims of the crimes they claimed”, Civil Police chief Fernando Veloso said yesterday.
Bentz and Conger “were heard only as witnesses”.
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An eyewitness to the incident, who acted as an interpreter between the swimmers and the gas station employees, has said the swimmers pleaded with the employees not to call the police and that a weapon was produced but never pointed at the athletes. Feigen gave almost $11,000 to charity to avoid prosecution.
