But his apology has been accepted by Olympic officials, and the mayor of Rio. In the Phelps case, the board announced a week after the arrest that it was suspending the sport’s biggest star for six months, banning him from competing in the 2015 world championships and taking away six months of his funding stipend.
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Lochte issued an apology on social media Friday, stating he waited to issue a statement until “it was clear” his teammates would be arriving safely back in the U.S.
On Wednesday night, authorities took the extraordinary step of pulling Conger and Bentz from their flight home for questioning. The fourth, Jimmy Feigen, made a deal with a judge to make a $10,800 payment and leave, his lawyer said.
Ryan Lochte (USA) reacts after the Men’s 200m Individual Medley Final in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 8. Rio’s Mayor, Eduardo Paes responded: “My only emotion towards them is pity and contempt”. “It is not representative of what is expected as Olympians, as Americans, as swimmers and as individuals”.
The drama – and ever-changing descriptions of the alleged robbery – deeply angered Brazilians, who said it cast a pall on their city and their Olympics.
“There is a very short shelf life for Olympic athletes”. His 12 Olympic medals are second only to Michael Phelps among US male Olympians. Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentze were originally not allowed to leave the country, as they were taken off a plane to America to be questioned, but they left Brazil yesterda.
According to The New York Times, Lochte’s teammates gave sworn statements to Brazilian authorities in which they described “public urination, vandalism and other drunken antics by the swimmers”.
Bentz and Conger were banned from flying back to the USA on Wednesday evening and after providing a police statement, they admitted that the original accusation was a lie. The money was donated to a local charity that supports sports programs.
Prosecutors were considering relatively minor charges of falsely reporting a crime and destruction of property, as recommended by police.
Feigen, along with his teammates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and 12-time-Olympic-medal-winner Ryan Lochte testified to having been attacked in the early hours of Sunday morning while returning to the Olympic Village in a taxi after attending a party.
He claims that although the Americans were never, in fact, robbed at gunpoint, security footage of the incident that has been circulating online doesn’t tell the full story.
“We do not condone the lapse in judgment and conduct”, USA Swimming executive director Chuck Wielgus said. Lochte had pulled a metal advertising sign off a wall as the quartet of swimmers urinated behind the gas station, he said, but there was no damage to a bathroom or its door, which was locked.
Police said the robbery story was fabricated and that the four swimmers involved vandalised a petrol station toilet early on Sunday after a night of partying.
Three of Lochte’s sponsors are now reviewing the situation.
Lochte relayed several details to NBC’s “Today” the morning after the incident that he later backtracked from.
” We got pulled over, in the taxi, and these guys came out with a badge, a police badge, no lights, no nothing just a police badge and they pulled us over”, Lochte said. Lochte said one of the men even pointed a gun to his forehead and robbed the men of their cash.
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“I was like ‘whatever, ‘” Lochte said in his initial account. And it overshadowed the efforts of U.S. Olympians, who have dominated the medal count.
