Ryan Lochte talked to NBC’s Matt Lauer on Friday in portions of an interview that aired early Saturday night on NBC’s WESH-TV affiliate. Rio police have said the swimmers vandalized a bathroom after a night of partying and armed guards at the gas station confronted them and asked them to pay for the damage. “Whether you call it a robbery or extortion or us paying just for the damages. We had to give the money”, Lochte said.
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He did stand by the part of his story about a gun being drawn.
Lochte, who said he “had too much to drink” that night, maintained that he and the other athletes were frightened because a gun was involved. “Never. There was nothing like that”, Fernando Deluz, a 38-year-old disc jockey, said, adding that the Americans chose to pay for property they destroyed to avoid calling police. Lochte also admitted that the controversy could impact his potentially lucrative sponsorship deals, “That’s something that I’m going to have to live with”, he said.
“It was my immature behavior”, Lochte said.
The four United States gold medal-winning swimmers hoped to draw a line under the scandal that erupted when Lochte went public with a shocking report of how they were mugged on their way early Sunday back from a party in Rio de Janeiro.
“We wanted to get out of there as quick as possible”.
He also said Mr Lochte began yelling at guards for an unknown reason.
Ryan Lochte found himself apologizing once again for his “immature behavior” in Rio. Deluz said a gun wasn’t pointed at the swimmers.
In an excerpt of the interview broadcast Saturday, Lauer notes how the story changed within a few days. As the week wore on, two of Lochte’s teammates were forced to stay in Brazil and answer further questioning about the incident after having their passports taken a way when they were removed from a flight.
The International Olympic Committee has established a disciplinary commission to investigate the incident, according to the Associated Press.
Bentz, 20, and Conger, 21, were removed from their USA -bound flight Wednesday night by Brazilian authorities, who seized their passports and questioned them for several hours about the incident.
“I let my team down”, said Lochte.
Gunnar Bentz, another of the swimmers, said Lochte tore a metal-framed advertising poster off a wall and argued with armed security guards. Police in Rio de Janei.
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Feigen had agreed in an earlier hearing to pay a 35,000 reais ($11,000) fine for lying. “I wanted to be there”. Like, I don’t want them to think that I left and left them dry because they were my teammates.
