Lochte could not pointedly answer that question, but admitted, “I over-exaggerated that story”. “It was hours after the incident happened [when I spoke to Bush], I was still intoxicated”.
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He said, I “don’t know why” the original story wasn’t the truth.
Police have said that the athletes vandalized a gas station bathroom before being confronted by armed security.
The episode, which has embarrassed the USA sporting superpower, saw Lochte and three other gold-winning U.S. swimmers embroiled in a controversy after he gave a shocking – and false – account of how they had been robbed at gunpoint.
Olympics: Ryan Lochte has spoken on American TV, admitting the entire “gunpoint robbery” saga was his fault. “I just wanted to make sure they were home safe before I came out and talk”.
“I wasn’t lying to a certain extent”, he said.
The swimmer, who won a gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay, also apologized to the people of Rio for any negative attention his story may have brought to their city.
“They have forever put themselves on the kind of list that you don’t want to be remembered for”, she told The Associated Press. The people of Rio or Brazil, the authorities, everyone there put on great games. And my immature behaviour tarnished that a little, and I don’t want that. “I let my team down and, you know…”
Despite U.S. Olympic swimmer #Ryan Lochte’s tearful apology following the earlier scandal at Rio, the #LochteGate story isn’t ending just yet.
The rest of Lochte’s interview with Lauer will air during Monday’s Today show. The first part of the two-part interview aired on Saturday night during NBC’s Nightly News.
He appeared on the Brazil’s Journal National news program on Saturday night and tried to explain his claims of having been “robbed”, stating that his accounts that he provided of the events to NBC on Sunday morning were provided while he was under the influence of some alcohol.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the US Olympic Committee apologized for the actions of the US Olympic swimmers, acknowledging that they had not in fact been robbed.
After the surveillance video was released, it became clear that Lochte and his teammates were not robbed with guns to their heads.
During their confrontation with security guards, who had the foursome sit down on the sidewalk, Bentz says that “Ryan stood up and began to yell at the guards”. Bentz and Conger were taken off a plane for questioning before being allowed to leave. James Feigen, the swimmer who called in the robbery, was ordered to pay almost $11,000 in damages for falsely reporting a crime. The episode proved to be a dark mark in what was otherwise a successful Olympics for the United States.
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“We all understand they let down our athletes and they let down Americans, and they really let down our hosts in Rio”, Blackmun said.
