“I want to apologize for my behavior last weekend – for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events of that early morning and for my role in taking the focus away from the many athletes fulfilling their dreams of participating in the Olympics”, the statement read.
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While Bentz placed the blame on Lochte for instigating the trouble at the gas station early Sunday, he also supported a number of details in Lochte’s account.
They said one of the swimmers had vandalised a gas station after the group stopped the taxi there to use a bathroom.
He also said that he should have been more “responsible”, adding that he was “sorry to my teammates, my fans, my fellow competitors, my sponsors, and the hosts of this great event”.
The 32-year-old Lochte nevertheless called the incident “traumatic”.
“I waited to share these thoughts until it was confirmed that the legal situation was addressed and it was clear that my team-mates would be arriving home safely”.
A fourth teammate, Jimmy Faegan will likely have to pay more than 10 thousand dollars before leaving Brazil this week. “The apologies have been more than accepted”, he said. “They did not represent the American athletes that are here”.
Yesterday, the US Olympic Committee issued an apology to the people of Brazil on behalf of Team USA.
Ryan Lochte (USA) reacts after the Men’s 200m Individual Medley Final in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 8. The pair denied playing any part in the invented story and were allowed to leave on another US-bound flight.
Developments came rapidly after police asserted that the swimmers had not been robbed.
“They were not victims of the crimes they claimed”, Civil Police Chief Fernando Veloso said. It emerged Lochte had already flown back to the USA while two other members of the group, Bentz and Conger, were taken off a flight in Rio on Thursday night to be questioned by police.
The charity, the Reaction Institute, said Feigen’s lawyer had already contacted them about making the payment. Under Brazilian law, a donation can be made to avoid criminal prosecution for minor offenses, he said.
Police said Lochte and the others had vandalized a gas station bathroom while intoxicated. Veloso said the guards would have been justified in drawing their weapons because the athletes “were conducting themselves in a violent way”.
The police official said officers grew suspicious when video showed the swimmers returning to the athletes village wearing watches, which would have likely been taken in a robbery.
The apology comes after Lochte’s fellow teammates, who were with him the night of the incident, gave sworn statements stating Lochte was drunk and misrepresented what actually happened, according to police. Bentz said a security guard flashed a badge at him and drew his handgun. After he initially refused to go to the ground, Lochte said one of the armed men held a gun to his head.
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“I was like ‘whatever, ‘” Lochte said in his initial account. “He took our money, he took my wallet – he left my cellphone, he left my credentials”.
