Lochte also gave an interview to Brazil’s main broadcaster Globo on Saturday, during which he again said he “exaggerated” the events of that evening, adding he was “highly intoxicated”.
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“Four of us took a taxi back to the Olympic Village, and on the way we pulled into a gas station to use the restroom, but ultimately relieved ourselves outside, for which I apologize”, Conger’s statement said.
He said he had “tarnished” the games and overshadowed the fans and other athletes competing. On Thursday, Brazilian police said the swimmers were not robbed by officers but instead were detained after vandalizing a bathroom at a gas station while drunk. “Whether you call it a robbery, whether you call it extortion, or us paying just for the damages, like, we don’t know”, Lochte responded.
Lochte has apologized for his behavior, but maintains that he and his teammates were frightened when they had a gun pulled on them.
“The things that you do are going to be magnified and the mistakes that you make are going to have a light shined on them in a way that’s going to make it very hard for you to overcome”, Blackmun said. Lochte pretty much has stuck to his original account, but teammates Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, both of whom were with Lochte during the alleged robbery, each recently issued statements that tell a different story.
The 12-time Olympic medalist got particularly teary-eyed when responding how he felt being back in the Usa, while Brazil police interrogated his teammates. And the only way we knew is – this guy saying, ‘You have to give him money.’ So we gave him money, and we got out.
Bentz, the youngest of the four swimmers involved, released a statement saying Lochte played the key role in the situation, tearing a poster off a wall and arguing with armed security guards at the gas station.
Prosecutors quickly appealed the penalty as being too low, persuading the judge to suspend the earlier ruling that had given Feigen the green light to leave. “I’m not making me being intoxicated like an excuse, I’m not doing that at all”, he said.
“I was anxious that they were going to assault me because they were very worked up”, the guard remembered. Bentz and Conger boarded a plane Wednesday night but authorities removed them from the jet and they stayed in the country one day for further questioning. “I wanted to be there”.
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According to People, the unnamed source said that there “will be severe consequences and the USOC officials aren’t going to let the incident slide – they want to send a message to future athletes that the kind of behavior displayed by the swimmers in Rio is unacceptable”. I know many people are around his age who are not mature, but not all of them are Olympic Swimmers. I have learned from it.
