US Olympic swimmers Gunnar Bentz (right) and Jack Conger leave a police station after being questioned on August 18 in Rio de Janeiro.
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Lochte originally said that he and fellow swimmers James Feigen, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were pulled over in their taxi and robbed at gunpoint early Sunday, but police deny a robbery took place.
Brazilian police have said this isn’t true and that in fact they had been drunk and had instead been confronted by armed guards after smashing up a petrol station toilet. In a detailed account, he said that Lochte “pulled to the ground a framed metal advertisement that was loosely anchored to the brick wall” and claimed “Ryan and the security guards had a heated verbal exchange” but said no guns were pulled.
According to CBS Sports, security guards at the gas station stopped the four Americans’ taxi and demanded money from them to pay for the damage they caused at the gas station. They lowered the guns and I used hand gestures to ask if it was OK to leave and they said yes.
A judge ordered the athletes’ passports to be confiscated so that they could not leave the country.
Bentz then went on to give a long and detailed account of what happened after the swimmers left a party on Saturday night.
Lochte said in a lengthy post on Instagram Friday that he was apologizing for his role in taking the focus away from other Olympic athletes.
The 12-time medalist, who managed to make it to the United States before a judicial order to seize his passport could be executed, said he’d waited until the legal situation of his teammates was dealt with before breaking his silence in what has jokingly become known as “Watergate” because swimmers were caught in a lie.
The International Olympic Committee will investigate the incident involving Ryan Lochte and three other US swimmers, and could issue sanctions if wrongdoing is found.
In his apology, Lochte made no reference to the vandalism, saying “It’s traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country – with a language barrier – and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave”.
Bentz and Conger were later pulled from a U.S. bound flight home by officials who suspected that the USA swimming team falsified some details of the event.
Gunnar Bentz, one of the US Olympic swimmers embroiled in an global incident over an alleged robbery in Rio, has issued a statement detailing what happened.
He did not, however, roll back on his allegations the swimmers had been robbed at gunpoint by men posing as police.
Lochte referred again to the gun in his apology, claiming confusion owing to his group’s inability to speak Portuguese.
“It was clear that much of the population felt humiliated by this false robbery claim and people anxious that the image of Brazil was damaged by this incident”, Mario Andrada, the Rio Committee’s communications director, says in a Portuguese statement obtained by Us Weekly.
“I am confident that some video angles have not been shown that would further substantiate my account”, Bentz added.
“I’ve got boys that age”, said Lee McNutt, a 61-year-old Silicon Valley salesman returning from the Games.
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A station employee called police, but the athletes wanted to leave so paid 100 Brazilian reals (about United States $33) and $20 in USA currency and left, Veloso said.
