“They let down our athletes”, Blackmun said without sharing details about what discipline could be coming.
Advertisement
“It hurt. I let my team down”, he said, choking back tears.
Lochte originally said last weekend that he and his teammates were the victims of an an armed robbery.
Lochte had claimed a robber held a gun to his head, but admitted in the NBC News interview that he had exaggerated that claim had been drunk. While police finally acknowledged that the athletes did hand over money, and armed guards did force them to stay at a gas station at gunpoint, it was only after the swimmers allegedly caused damage to the gas station and tried to leave.
A tearful Ryan Lochte has said sorry to his USA swimming team-mates, his family and the people of Brazil for a “stupid mistake” at a Rio gas station that overshadowed the final week of the Olympic Games.
Speedo USA said it would donate a $50,000 portion of Lochte’s fee to Save The Children, a global charity partner of Speedo USA’s parent company.”We can not condone behavior that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for”, Speedo USA said in an email statement on Monday.
Lochte replies “And that’s why I’m taking full responsibility for it” (oh, that’s how we’re defining fleeing a country before the police can take your passport and file charges against you and leaving your buddies to deal with the fallout?). I’m not making an excuse, I’m not doing that at all, and I shouldn’t have said that.
When asked by Lauer how it felt to watch news coverage of his teammates removed from their flight by Brazilian police while he was in the U.S., Lochte stressed just how apologetic he was.
He went on to write that he “should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself”, and mentioned that he would have released the apology sooner, but was waiting until three of his teammates, also involved in the incident, were allowed to return to the U.S.
“If I had never done that, we never would have been in this mess … none of this would have happened”. “He lied to you, he lied to Matt Lauer, he lied to his mom”. I don’t want them to think that I left, and left them dry.
Lochte could not pointedly answer that question, but admitted, “I over-exaggerated that story”.
Lochte left Rio immediately, but authorities detained Bentz, 20, and Conger, 21. Gold medalist Ryan Lochte and law enforcement officials in Brazil are in disagreement over what occurred at a Rio de Janeiro gas station after a night of post-competition celebrating. “I wish I could feel sorry for them”.
Advertisement
Lochte ended his interview with Lauer by telling him that he hopes to continue his Olympic swimming career and work on becoming a “role model to little kids” in the future.
