While Feigen and Conger – who have both arrived in the U.S.as of Friday – have yet to speak out, Lochte took to Instagram on Friday morning to issue an apology.
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Disgraced US swimmers Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz have been forced to hide behind a curtain in the staff quarters of their flight home after escaping their self-inflicted nightmare in Brazil.
In the security video above, you can see the swimmers had their hands up at one point.
One of the U.S. Olympic swimmers caught up in the scandal over a fabricated claim of a robbery during the games in Rio de Janeiro, offered a detailed account of the events that happened that night while apologizing for his actions, according to a statement from the University of Georgia.
Lochte had told USA television that he and his team mates were robbed when their taxi was pulled over in the early hours of Sunday as they returned to the Athletes’ Village from a party.
“For new brands looking to hire a spokesman or an endorser to be the face of a brand, he’ll be toxic for a while”, said Gary Fechter, a lawyer with McCarter & English who has worked in corporate endorsements.
First, Matt Lauer says Lochte now insists he did NOT have a gun pressed up against his forehead during the incident – but rather, one of the gunmen was pointing the gun in his general direction. Veloso said the guards did not use excessive force and would have been justified in drawing their weapons because the athletes “were conducting themselves in a violent way”.
“This was a situation that could and should have been avoided”, Lochte said. Investigators couldn’t substantiate details given in early statements and interviews and the claim began to unravel.
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. I refused, I was like we didn’t do anything wrong, so – I’m not getting down on the ground.
“I gave them what I had in my wallet, which was a $20 bill, and Jimmy gave them 100 reals, which is about $50 in total”, Bentz said.
The debacle prompted both wild speculation and social media mockery, which quickly turned to scorn after the official account went public.
“The story did have some sense of validity but it didn’t bear out and it made them look bad worldwide”, he said. Authorities brought three of them in for questioning, Bentz and Conger having been pulled off a plane bound for the United States.
While he’s medaled often, Lochte’s accomplishments have always been overshadowed by teammate Michael Phelps – the most decorated Olympian in history. The group, as well as Olympic officials, publicly expressed disappointment and said they would further examine the matter.
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“We apologize to our hosts in Rio and the people of Brazil for this distracting ordeal in the midst of what should rightly be a celebration of excellence”, the U.S. Olympic Committee said.
