He did not specify what punishment they would be given when he spoke to NBC on Sunday, but said that the group had “let down our athletes”. Lochte also revealed he was “still intoxicated” when he first claimed he was robbed. “I think we ended up in the right place in terms of being able to shine a light on what really happened there”.
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But, still defiant, the swimmer insists he did have a gun pointed at him during his encounter with the security guards: “Whether you call it a robbery or extortion or us paying just for the damages”.
Lochte, however, apologised after Brazilian police said the four swimmers fabricated the story as CCTV footage showed an altercation at a petrol station.
Police in Rio De Janeiro have recommended that US Olympic swimmers Ryan Lochte and James Feigen face charges of falsely reporting a crime, according to ABC News.
The U.S. athlete added that he over exaggerated because he felt threatened and wanted to leave the country.
“The things that you do are going to be magnified and the mistakes that you make are going to have a light shined on them in a way that’s going to make it very hard for you to overcome”, Blackmun said. “I wanted to definitely be there and I wanted to help out any way I could, so I just wanted to make sure they were home safe before I came out and talked”, he explained, referencing his public apology on Friday.
The tale of a gunpoint robbery in Rio initially embarrassed Brazil, which had suffered a series of assaults against visiting government ministers, athletes and tourists, until local police accused Lochte, 32, of making it up to cover up vandalizing a gas station.
Even though Ryan Lochte and his USA men’s swimming teammates are back in the United States after the Rio Olympics, the fallout from their much publicized incident does not appear to be over.
Lochte said that he is taking full responsibility about the matter because if he did not over exaggerate the story, they would not be in such a mess. “And my immature behaviour tarnished that a little, and I don’t want that”.
More of the interview will air on Monday’s installment of Today. As opposed to Lochte’s statement before that the gun was pointed at his head, he retracted that and said that the gun was pointed in their general direction.
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Let me begin by emphasizing that I have been completely truthful in my statements throughout this unfortunate situation, including the information I provided to United States officials before leaving Brazil. “I’m human. I made a mistake and one thing I did learn, I learnt a lot from it and I know that this will never happen again”.
