In portions of a full interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer Saturday night, US swimmer Ryan Lochte attempted to clarify his role in the early morning episode at a Rio de Janeiro gas station last weekend.
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Ryan Lochte is talking to Matt Lauer in his first interview following the scandal surrounding his armed robbery claim during the Rio Olympics.
“I want to apologize for my behavior last weekend ― for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events of that early morning and for my role in taking the focus away from the many athletes fulfilling their dreams of participating in the Olympics”, Lochte said. “Whether you call it a robbery, whether you call it extortion, or us paying just for the damages, like, we don’t know”, Lochte responded. “All we know was a gun was pointed our direction and we were demanded to give money”.
Lochte had said that he, Bentz, Jack Conger and James Feigen were robbed by men claiming to be police officers and that guns had been pointed at them, including a cocked gun being held to his forehead.
Following the fabricated story, Lochte and teammate Feigen were indicted by Rio civil police for falsely reporting a crime.
Lochte’s television interview comes just one day after he apologized on social media and admitted to making mistakes.
But he admitted he understood he was being told that the Americans had to pay for the damages or the police would be called.
“This crime only happens when you go to the police and you make a report, you file a report, ” said Srour, who added that she has represented Americans arrested in Brazil.
Lochte also said he was “not done with this sport” and wanted to swim again. “If I had never done that, we wouldn’t be in this mess”.
According to the statement, translated from Portuguese, Deluz said he was told by a gas station attendant that four men urinated on the floor and broke an advertisement. When confronted by armed security to pay for the damage, the group offered $20 U.S. and about $33 in Brazilian reais. There are conflicting accounts as to whether the guards drew their guns when they confronted the swimmers.
“There was no aggression”.
One more honor awaits Simone Biles at the Rio Games.
“It’s an incredible honor”, Biles said. In Rio, he swam in two events, winning gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay along with Conger.
The fourth swimmer involved, Jimmy Feigen, is expected to donate $11,000 to a charity in order to settle the dispute, while the US Olympic Committee stated on Friday that the behaviour of the athletes involved does not “represent the values of Team USA or the conduct of the vast majority of its members”. The IOC asked the IAAF to modify the results and consider any further sanctions against the 36-year-old Kolodko, who could face a two-year ban.
Kitty Chiller says that she is sorry about the trauma suffered by the athletes held for hours at a police station until early Saturday morning.
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“I let my team down and, you know”, he said. Once those are paid, they will get their passports back.
