Star US swimmer Ryan Lochte apologized to Brazil on Friday for inventing a story that he and three teammates were mugged during the Olympics, as one of them paid $10,800 to avoid charges.
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Lochte tweeted his apology and said he was sorry for his “role in taking the focus away from the many athletes fulfilling their dreams of participating in the Olympics”.
While he said he was sorry, Lochte’s three-paragraph statement attempted to justify what had taken place.
But he said: “I accept my responsibility for my role in this happening and have learned some valuable lessons”.
Lochte left the country earlier in the week, but his teammate were ordered to remain in the country to answer police questions. The group, as well as Olympic officials, publicly expressed disappointment. Swimming’s biggest meet next year is the world championships in Budapest, Hungary. Lochte returned to the United States Monday before any of the news emerged.
The relay gold medal victor, who was the first of the four to return to the United States, said he had waited “to share these thoughts until it was confirmed that the legal situation was addressed and it was clear that my teammates would be arriving home safely”.
Bentz and Conger flew home early Friday morning after cooperating with local authorities.
But Rio police said the story was fabricated.
Rio’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, accepted the apology but said he had “pity and contempt” for the athletes involved. “They did not represent the American athletes that are here”.
Because it’s about time someone set the record straight.
Rio Games organisers hope the swimmers’ atonement, combined with an official apology from the U.S. Olympic Committee, will draw a line under a controversy that has dominated news coverage of South America’s first Olympics and embarrassed the host city.
Ryan Lochte has apologised for “not being more careful and candid” in his account of the alleged Rio robbery.
Upon his return to the US, Lochte emphatically denied claims he made the story up.
American swimmer James Feigen has agreed to pay a charity in Brazil almost $11,000 to settle his part of a robbery scandal at the Rio Olympic Games, allowing him to return to the U.S.
Though a Brazilian court approved Feigen’s departure Friday, Brazilian prosecutors had indicated they wanted Feigen to pay even more. An encounter with the Brazilian criminal justice system.
Brazilian authorities have accused Feigen and fellow U.S. swimmer, Ryan Lochte, of inventing the story in order to hide an act of vandalism at a petrol station following a night out in the city with teammates Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger. The gas station owner said Lochte, who later acknowledged being intoxicated, also urinated on the outer wall before leaving. Veloso said the guards did not use excessive force and would have been justified in drawing their weapons because the athletes “were conducting themselves in a violent way”.
Onlookers shouted “liars” and “shameful” at Bentz and Conger as they left a police station Thursday where they gave statements.
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Lochte relayed several details to NBC’s “Today” the morning after the incident that he later backtracked from. According to Brazilian police, a security officer did pull his gun on the athletes because he had felt threatened by their raucous behavior.
