Conger and Bentz had been set to jet out of Rio de Janeiro airport Wednesday night before they were grounded in Brazil. Three American swimmers are expected to give statements to Brazilian police on Thursday about how they were reportedly robbed early Sunday morning in Rio de Janeiro.
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American swimmer Ryan Lochte has changed his story about being robbed in Rio, three days after first claiming he and three teammates were robbed at gunpoint.
“We regret the violence has got so close to the athletes”, he said. ABC News reports there is a security video of one of the swimmers “breaking down the door to the bathroom at a gas station and fighting with a security guard” at the site of the alleged robbery.
Attorney Sergio Viegas said late last night Conger and Bentz had left the airport for an unspecified location and had yet to testify.
Brazilian police stopped swimmers Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz from boarding a flight home to question them about how the swimmers were robbed at gunpoint, after a judge raised doubts over their accounts.
Mark Adams, a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, tells the press that the swimmers’ account is “absolutely not true”.
An attorney for Ryan Lochte told CNN he and three other swimmers are being targeted by Brazil after reporting they were robbed.
They were detained hours after officers attempted to seize the passports of both Lochte and another swimmer: Jimmy Feigen, whose whereabouts remain a matter of speculation, but who US officials now say is also cooperating with police in Rio.
“Bents and Conger boarded a flight here in Rio International Airport on Wednesday, but before the flight could leave for the United States, federal police boarded the plane took these two athletes out of the plane and detained both of them and took both of their passports”, Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from Rio, said.
Lochte’s lawyer told the Times he believes Brazilian authorities are acting out of embarrassment, after a series of incidents ranging from robberies to dirty Olympic pool water. A lawyer for the two athletes said they will not be allowed to leave Brazil until they provide testimony to investigators. But when police turn up at the Olympic village on Wednesday the four men have already moved out, and Mr Lochte has already landed in the US.
The elder Lochte said his son’s Olympic credential and cell phone weren’t taken during the incident early Sunday morning.
“All are represented by counsel and being appropriately supported by the USOC and the U.S. Consulate in Rio”, Sandusky said. Lochte had already left the country when the decision was made, but according to the police Feigen remains in Rio. Steve Lochte said. “It’s just ridiculous”.
Associated Press reporters waiting outside Lochte’s home in North Carolina did not see the 12-time medalist.
Feigen is in Rio and said he’s cooperating with officials. The pair were part of a group of four United States swimmers who reported being robbed.
Bentz and Conger were part of the team that won a gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay; they raced in the earlier heats that put the team into the final.
Lochte initially told NBC News that the four swimmers were in a taxi that was pulled over by men with badges.
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“When you have one of America’s athletes who comes out and said something happened to him that happens to people there every single day”, Jeff Ostrow told CNN over the phone Thursday, “that doesn’t look good for a country trying to have a successful Olympics”.
