He goes on to say, “I waited to share these thoughts until it was confirmed that the legal situation was addressed and it was confirmed that my teammates would be arriving home safely”.
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Two other US swimmers involved in the ordeal, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz, arrived in Miami from Brazil early on Friday, according to Reuters. A lawyer for Feigen said that his client was allowed to leave after agreeing to pay $10,800 to an “institution”. The saga also dominated Olympic headlines, overshadowing accomplishments of athletes who trained for years and set records.
Ryan Lochte has broken his silence after Brazilian authorities say he and three of his Olympic teammates lied about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio Sunday morning. “I hope we spend our time celebrating the great stories and performances of these games and look ahead to celebrating future successes”.
Police said they interviewed a taxi driver, a customer who translated for the men, and two girls who had been partying with the swimmers.
“No robbery was committed against these athletes”, he said.
Rio de Janeiro’s police chief Fernando Veloso called on the gold medal-winning athlete and the others to apologize for the robbery claims that embarrassed the Olympic host city. “They did not make any untruthful testimony”. Bentz, who arrived back in the US early Friday, emphasized that he was considered a witness, not a suspect, by Brazilian police and never made a false statement about the incident at any time.
Under Brazilian law, donations can be made to avoid charges for minor offenses. “That part of the story will never change”, Ostrow said.
David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia, said the incident touched a nerve in Brazil because of the country’s history and cases of people committing crimes while impersonating police. Either one or all of them vandalized a gas station, which initiated a confrontation with security guards, Veloso said. According to the official, the swimmers did give him an undisclosed amount of money before leaving the scene.
The group’s story unravelled as security footage showed them arguing with the petrol station’s armed security guards. “They are magnificent athletes”, Mario Andrada, a spokesman for Rio 2016, said Thursday. They then walked a block down the street and took another taxi back to the Olympic Village. As of Friday morning, a Google news search for Lochte’s name and the Portuguese word mentiroso (“liar”) returned almost 5,800 results.
But by the next morning, the incident seemed to have been all but forgotten about, so why would Lochte tell such an elaborate lie on television and to police?
The owner of the gas station is not pressing charges for damage to property after the athletes paid 100 Brazilian reals and a $20 bill for the damages, Velso said. I am unsure why, but while we were in that area, Ryan pulled to the ground a framed metal advertisement that was loosely anchored to the brick wall. “They pulled out their guns, they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground – they got down on the ground”.
Lochte apologized on social media on Friday, report the Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune.
David Fleischer, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia, said the incident touched a nerve in Brazil because of the country’s history.
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Feigen was still being held by police over night Thursday.
