One of four U.S. Olympic swimmers who were part of a now-infamous incident at a Rio de Janeiro gas station said Friday that he never lied about being robbed.
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When Lauer pressed Lochte, insisting that his initial reporting of the alleged robbery was more about the “mean streets of Rio” than “some dumb behavior”, Lochte admitted: “That’s why I’m taking full responsibility for it”.
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. Olympic swimmer James Feigen says he will pay about $10,800 Friday and then leave Brazil following the robbery scandal involving the US swim team.
But this past week, after reviewing surveillance footage and speaking with witnesses, the Brazilian police said that there was no robbery and that security guards had drawn their weapons only after the swimmers vandalized a gas station bathroom and were asked to pay for the damage they’d done.
“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”.
Lochte had already returned to the United States when Brazilian police detained the remaining three swimmers, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Congen and Jimmy Feigen.
The episode, which has embarrassed the U.S. sporting superpower, saw Lochte and three other gold medal winning Usa swimmers embroiled in a controversy after he gave a shocking – and false – account of how they had been robbed at gunpoint. They have issued statements in which they outlined their stories, breaking their silence on the matter.
The United States Olympic Committee has apologized to the people of Brazil and said what these swimmers did was “unacceptable”.
“I let my team down and, you know”, he said, as he started to tear up. “But, as we say in Brazil, ‘A lie has got short legs.’ And the population should be proud of our image around the world”. “It’s a reminder that all of us, when we travel and especially when we represent the U.S.in the Olympics, are ambassadors for our country and should be on our best behavior”.
A Brazilian police officer then told The New York Times that the swimmers’ stories were untrue after a video of the group having an altercation at a petrol station emerged after breaking a locked bathroom door.
“It’s traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country – with a language barrier”.
In the United States, Lochte has come under serious scorn, with media and internet comments nearly universally scathing.
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The 26-year-old is slated to donate the money to a Brazilian charity Reaction Institute in order to avoid prosecution, the Associated Press reports.
