He admitted he “overexaggerated” the story about the supposed gas-station robbery.
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Lochte said he regretted how the incident had tarnished Rio and the last week of the Olympics.
IT’S the story that keeps on giving. The group then claimed to police they had been robbed at gunpoint.
Lochte fought back tears at one point during his TV chat with Matt Lauer when he was asked how he felt when his teammates were detained in Rio as police investigated allegations he had made on TV.
“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.
New York Times sports media columnist Richard Sandomir said Saturday that “Lochte’s account needed more reporting before it entered NBC’s news ecosystem”.
Rio had enough question marks about security and crime hanging over its head during the Games, and it looked like Lochte was using that reputation to avoid telling the truth. Either that or he was too blotto to remember, which is entirely plausible given he said “I was still intoxicated” when he gave his first interview after the incident.
CCTV footage later emerged of the swimmers at a petrol station.
Officials at Rio de Janeiro claimed that Lochte and the other swimmers were not robbed as they vandalized a bathroom at a gas station and were confronted by armed security guards.
Following the incident, Lochte flew back to the United States, while the other three stayed in Brazil.
Earlier Saturday, a Brazilian judge provided another twist to the saga, suspending permission for Feigen to leave the country – even though he had already flown home.
“Brazil doesn’t deserve that”, he said to Globo. I think the police had asked for an opportunity to talk to two of the young men. The entire interview airs during Monday’s “Today” show. If I hadn’t done that we wouldn’t be in this mess.
“It was my fault”.
In a statement released Sunday, USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun said that the four swimmers “let down our athletes”, let down America as a whole, and let down the hosts of the 2016 Rio #Olympics, considering the “wonderful job” they did in organizing the Games.
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Lochte subsequently conceded that he had “over-exaggerated” his story and apologised for his “immature behaviour”, and Blackmun says further action will be taken upon his return to the US.
