During the NBC interview, Lauer noted that Lochte was safe and sound back in the U.S.as his teammates Gunnar Bentz, 20, Jack Conger, 21, and Jimmy Feigen, 26, were still in Rio, left to answer the questions about what really happened.
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Portions of the interview will air on Saturday’s edition of NBC Nightly News, during NBC’s primetime Olympics coverage and on Monday’s installment of Today.
“I was immature, and I made a stupid mistake”, Ryan said.
When he was interviewed about the situation the following day, Ryan claims he was “still intoxicated” from the night before because he “definitely had way too much to drink”.
For Lochte, he was not making it as his excuse and he should not have exaggerated the details.
“We wanted to get out of there as quick as possible and the only way we knew, is this guy was saying to give him money”.
When asked what he was feeling when he saw his teammates taken off a plane and held back in Brazil, Lochte responded by saying he was “hurt”.
Competitive swimmer Ryan Lochte of the United States poses for a photo with his gold medal on the Today show set on Copacabana Beach on August 12, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Speaking to NBC’s Matt Lauer, Lochte admitted his guilt while also claiming that he was deeply embarrassed for himself, his family, USA, the fans and everyone watching. 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. I wanted to help out any way I could.
“I don’t want them to look at me, he was a drunk frat boy or whatever”, he 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”, Ryan said. The security guard apparently never brandished a firearm and there was no robbery, authorities said of the entire episode that was reportedly caught on surveillance camera footage. “We were all frightened. It was my immature behavior”. “The gun was drawn but not at my forehead”. “If I had never done that, we would never be in this mess”. “I let my team down and, you know…” I don’t want them to think that I left them.
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“I know what I did was wrong”, he said.
