The American swimmer had claimed that, along with three of his team-mates, he had been robbed at gunpoint on the way back to the Olympic Village from a night out at Casa Franca in Rio de Janeiro.
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Portions of the interview will air tonight, Saturday, August 20, during NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage.
Ryan Lochte and fellow U.S. swimmers Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen last week claimed they were robbed at gunpoint, which drew huge media attention and raised concerns over the Games’ security which had always been criticized, reports Xinhua news agency.
Deluz – who made a decision to intervene when he saw the guards having trouble communicating with the athletes – said in the statement he asked the men to calm down and Bentz asked “how much money” and “no police please”.
The tale of a gunpoint robbery in Rio initially embarrassed Brazil, which had suffered a series of assaults against visiting government ministers, athletes and tourists, until local police accused Lochte, 32, of making it up to cover up vandalizing a gas station.
American swimmer James Feigen has agreed to pay a charity in Brazil almost $11,000 to settle his part of a robbery scandal at the Rio Olympic Games, allowing him to return to the U.S. “All we know was a gun was pointed our direction and we were demanded to give money”.
On Friday, the 12-time Olympic medalist posted an apology to Instagram and Twitter, writing that he was sorry for his “role in taking the focus away from the many athletes fulfilling their dreams of participating in the Olympics”. “If I had never done that, we wouldn’t be in this mess”.
Lochte said he regretted how the incident had tarnished Rio and the last week of the Olympics. “There was a gun pointed in our direction”. After two security guards approached the swimmers’ taxi and instructed them to get out, Bentz says Lochte lost his temper.
“We just wanted to get out of there”, he told Lauer in the preview clip.
Brazilian police questioned the narrative and said the athletes weren’t robbed or victims.
The International Olympic Committee will launch a disciplinary inquiry into the four swimmers, an IOC official told AFP yesterday.
“No guns were drawn during this exchange, but we did see a gun tucked into one of the guards’ waistband”, he said.
However, police said a day later that there were inconsistencies in the men’s accounts. “Ryan Lochte removed a poster from a nearby wall, which apparently alerted the gas station employees, leading to our being confronted by two armed security men”.
Bentz’s statement also confirms that some of the accusations levied against the four men by Brazilian authorities, such as the fact that they had urinated on the side of the gas station and caused damage to the property, are true.
A Brazilian judge on Wednesday ordered Lochte and Feigen to remain in the country, but Lochte already left.
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“Let me begin by emphasizing that I have been completely truthful in my statements throughout this unfortunate situation, including the information I provided to United States officials before leaving Brazil”, the statement said.
