RIO 2016

Ryan Lochte accepts responsibility for gas station incident in NBC interview

Rachel Axon
USA TODAY Sports

RIO DE JANEIRO — Ryan Lochte accepted more responsibility for his role in a late-night incident during the Rio Olympics that drew international attention after he said he and three teammates had been robbed at gunpoint and local police called that a fabrication.

In an interview with NBC that aired in part on Saturday evening, Lochte told Matt Lauer that he embellished the initial story in which a guy with a badge held a gun to his head.

Brazilian police say U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte lied about being robbed at gunpoint.

“That’s why I’m taking full responsibility for it is because I over-exaggerated that story,” Lochte said. “If I never had done that, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

“None of this would have happened and it was my immature behavior.”

Lochte had previously issued an apology on Friday before the interview with NBC was released. More was set to be aired during the Saturday night broadcast of the Games.

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Lochte said on Sunday that a taxi he and fellow American swimmers Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen were riding in had been pulled over by guys with badges who had pointed guns at the swimmers and robbed them.

A judge ordered Wednesday that Lochte and Feigen remain in the country and that their passports be seized, but Lochte was back in the United States by Tuesday. Later Wednesday, Bentz and Conger were pulled off a flight out of Rio.

Rio police on Thursday said the swimmers were not the victims of a robbery and that the story had been fabricated. They did say security guards working at the Shell gas station that they alleged Lochte vandalized had shown a badge and acknowledged that a gun was drawn.

“It’s how you want to make it look like, whether you call it a robbery, whether you call it extortion or us paying just for the damages, we don’t know,” Lochte told Lauer. “All we know is there was a gun pointed in our direction and we were demanded to give money.”

Police and Bentz said that the swimmers paid $20 plus 100 Reais, which is about $33. Surveillance video shows damage to a poster outside an alley where the swimmers relieved themselves, but no video has been released that shows them going into or damaging the gas station restroom as police have said.

Lauer questioned Lochte’s story in the clip of the interview, asking why if the swimmers were speaking through an impromptu translator that they viewed that as a robbery rather than a settlement.

“We just wanted to get out of there. We were held,” Lochte said. “There was a gun pointed in our direction. We were all frightened and we wanted to get out of there as quick as possible, and the only way we knew is this guy is saying you have to give them money. So we gave them money and we got out.”

Conger and Bentz left Brazil on Thursday after giving further statements to police, and Feigen left Friday after paying nearly $11,000 to charity.

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