That means the stakes are even higher when swimmers have their time to shine in the Olympic sun, which is why some have found the scandal surrounding the US swimmers so unfortunate. “The apologies have been more than accepted”, he said.
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The 32-year-old Lochte, Bentz and Conger have returned to the United States, while Feigen was still in Brazil on Friday morning.
On Wednesday night, authorities took the extraordinary step of pulling Conger and Bentz from their flight home for questioning.
Ryan Lochte (USA) reacts after the Men’s 200m Individual Medley Final in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 8.
“My feeling is one of pity”, Mayor Eduardo Paes said.
Several other Australian athletes were fined after using the wrong accreditation to enter a basketball arena where the nation’s team played Serbia in the Olympics semifinal, on Saturday.
Much speculation continues to swirl around the consequences the four U.S. swimmers could face. Brazil and Rio have staged a great Games, and it was a privilege to be there and to represent the United States of America. She believes Lochte will likely lose sponsors.
Repercussions from the case led to Brazilian police investigating and proving that the swimmers lied about what happened. “The only person that continues to say there was a robbery is (Lochte)”, he said after the news conference. Bentz says he was the one who urged everyone to do as they were told, which included paying about $70 to the men in exchange for being allowed to leave.
Feigen planned to donate 35,000 Brazilian reals ($10,800) to an “institution” and leave the country, his lawyer said.
The charity, the Reaction Institute, which brings sports to low-income communities and helped train Brazilian gold medalist judoka Rafaela Silva, said the money had been paid and would be used to fully enclose a judo arena near the City of God slum. Under Brazilian law, a donation can be made to avoid criminal prosecution for minor offenses, he said.
Prosecutors were considering relatively minor charges of falsely reporting a crime and destruction of property, as recommended by police.
Feigen did not join Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger when they left Thursday night because he was ordered to donate nearly $11,000 to a local sports charity before charges against him would be dropped.
Security video released by police shows the swimmers in an argument with staff at the Shell service station.
The US Olympic Committee’s earlier statement also apologized for the athletes’ behavior after the video footage came to light. Veloso said the guards would have been justified in drawing their weapons because the athletes “were conducting themselves in a violent way”.
Veteran swimmer Ryan Lochte’s brush with Rio police has already hurt his appeal to sponsors – but for two lesser-known team mates, it means they may never get a chance to sign their first major deal. Police accused the swimmers of fabricating the robbery story and being involved in vandalism.
First, they learned on social media that four Americans had reportedly been mugged – a story Lochte told in hair-raising detail to the U.S. media – civil police Chief Fernando Veloso said at a news conference Thursday. After he initially refused to go to the ground, Lochte said one of the armed men held a gun to his head.
“I was like ‘whatever, ‘” Lochte said in his initial account. “I was like ‘Whatever.’ He took our money, he took my wallet-he left my cell phone, he left my credentials”. Shifting accounts in TV interviews and social media posts. Who is the shortest USA competitor?
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Ryan – who won gold in Brazil in the 4x200m freestyle relay – has now apologised for “not being more careful or candid” in how he described the events.
