A night that began at Club France on August 14 ended with an alleged armed robbery, according to Lochte and his teammates-Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, and Jimmy Feigen.
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The fourth member of the group, Jimmy Feigen, was set to leave the country last night after agreeing with a judge to donate US$11,000 (RM44,170) to a sporting charity, a condition of police returning his passport.
“It’s relatively hard for any swimmer to break out and to attract sponsors, but if you couple it with how they all corroborated a fabricated story, it’s a black eye”, Delzell said.
Like Lochte, Dalbey was harshly criticized after he apologized publicly for the prank he pulled.
Surveillance footage and an investigation by Brazilian authorities showed that they had vandalised a gas station bathroom and had handed over money to armed security guards who had prevented them from leaving.
“I should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself and for that am sorry to my teammates, my fans, my fellow competitors, my sponsors, and the hosts of this great event”, he wrote.
He also said that this was a “situation that could and should have been avoided”.
The 32-year old swimmer said he accepted responsibility for his role in it and had “learned some valuable lessons”.
The U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Swimming have said they will consider whether to take action against the swimmers. His 12 Olympic medals are second only to Michael Phelps among USA male Olympians. “Lochte is one of the best swimmers of all times”. Feigen won gold as part of the 4×100 freestyle relay.
Then security video reviewed by police and later released publicly confirmed the vandalism and encounter with station employees.
The saga has deeply hurt Brazilians, who were eager to prove they could get street crime under control and host a safe Olympics.
While he’s medaled often, Lochte’s accomplishments have always been overshadowed by teammate Michael Phelps – the most decorated Olympian in history. Swimmers alone piled up 16 golds and 33 medals in total at the games.
Technically, the quartet could be fined, suspended or expelled.
“We do not condone the lapse in judgment and conduct”, USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus said. “They did not represent the American athletes that are here”.
Bentz and Conger stumbled just as they were getting started on the worldwide stage, so the repercussions could linger longest with the Olympic rookies.
Conger’s story differs from the statement of fellow swimmer Gunnar Bentz in some ways; Conger does not mention the bathroom poster torn off the wall, nor does he detail the amount of money paid for the poster (roughly $70, in Bentz’s telling).
In his statement, Bentz apologized to U.S. officials, his teammates and his university.
Bentz, 20, and Conger, 21, remain amateurs and are both at university, in Georgia and Texas respectively.
He said: “There was no restroom inside, so we foolishly relieved ourselves on the backside of the building behind some bushes”.
“I then suggested to everyone that we needed to leave the area and we returned to the taxi”.
“These guys came here causing trouble … but we did not touch them at all”, the 34-year-old guard told an Us Weekly source via a translator. Bentz says he was the one who urged everyone to do as they were told, which included paying about $70 to the men in exchange for being allowed to leave.
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Bentz also said he is “confident” that some video angles that would substantiate his account have either not been released by Rio authorities or were skipped over.
