Ryan Lochte Apologizes for Behavior, 2 Teammates Leave Brazil, 3rd Fined $11K

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL — Two American swimmers who were with embattled gold medalist Ryan Lochte on a late-night Rio outing he says ended with an armed robbery have returned to the United States, while a third swimmer has apologized and agreed to pay a fine for making up a false police report.

Meanwhile, Lochte had already made it home to the U.S., where he issued an apology Friday morning for not being more careful and candid in his description of the incident, which he continues to call a robbery, saying he and his teammates were held up at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro by men who posed as police. Authorities say the armed man was a security guard seeking to halt the athlete, who vandalized a gas station bathroom.

At a Thursday afternoon press conference, Brazilian police officials said the American foursome was not robbed. “They were not victims of the crimes they claimed,” said Fernando Veloso, chief of civil police, according to a USA Today account.

Police said they had evidence swimmers Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen vandalized a gas station after a late night out partying. The swimmers reportedly made up the story after they broke a locked door at a gas station on their way back to the Olympic village, then argued with a gas station employee about the damage, according to multiple media reports. The athletes paid about $60 to compensate for the damage and left.

Conger, of Rockville, Maryland, and Bentz, of Atlanta, were removed from their U.S.-bound flight for questioning Wednesday and have reportedly told police that Sunday's robbery story had been fabricated. Both men were allowed to fly home Thursday, with local crowds jeering at them, calling them "liars" and "fakes."

As Bentz and Conger boarded a plane, their attorney said the pair had nothing to do with Lochte’s story. The men “were heard only as witnesses. This has to be made very, very clear,” lawyer Sergio Riera told The Associated Press. “They did not make any untruthful testimony. They did not lie in their statements.”

Feigen agreed to pay a $10,800 fine, to an unspecified charity, in order to get his passport back and receive permission to leave Brazil, reports SBNation.

US Olympic Committee chief executive Scott Blackmun apologized "to our hosts in Rio and the people of Brazil," saying that the behavior of the swimmers was not acceptable and that potential consequences would be decided later.

Lochte posted a statement on Twitter Friday that apologized for taking the focus away from the Olympic Games. He says that he should have been more responsible while out in Rio but didn't admit to a lie.

"It's traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country ... and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave," Lochte said.

Read his full statement here:

An unnamed Brazilian police official told The Associated Press that 12-time Olympic medalist Lochte fabricated the story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro, first telling his mother about the purported crime, says ESPN.

Judge Marcello Rubioli, the head of the special court handling the case that has taken on international news coverage as Brazil disputes the PR black eye, says that making a false claim carries little punishment in the country.

On Wednesday, Lochte talked to NBC's Matt Lauer and tweaked his earlier comments on the robbery. NBC News reported Wednesday night that Lochte said he and his teammates weren't pulled over, as he had previously stated, but that they were at a gas station when they were robbed. And he said the robber pointed a gun in his direction, not at his forehead, as he had first said.

"We wouldn't make this story up," Lochte reportedly told "The Today Show's" Matt Lauer.

Earlier in the day, a Brazilian judge ordered that authorities seize the passports of Lochte and Feignen — the other two swimmers who had claimed to be victims in the robbery. Feignen was supposed to be on the same flight headed home as Conger and Bentz but was detained before he could get on the plane.

"The facts told by the swimmer seem inconsistent and, taking into consideration that the image of all of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro could be affected —the swimmer said that he was robbed by police officers, who are agents of the state — [the Bar Association] decided to send a request to the Public Ministry to investigate the possible crime of filing a possible crime of calumnious denunciation, which is also so that there are no doubts about what happened that night," Renato Teixeira de Sousa, vice president of Rio Bar Association Public Security Commission, told USA Today Sports.

Conger's detention stems from Lochte's previous claim that the four athletes were robbed following a party early Sunday morning. Lochte is the only one among the four swimmers who has spoken publicly of the alleged mugging, saying people wearing police uniforms held them at gunpoint demanding money.

But surveillance footage has emerged showing the four athletes returning to the Olympic village after a night of celebration for their gold medals — a return after the mugging would've taken place, given Lochte's version of events. Yet the video shows the four calm and even laughing — behavior incongruous to having just been mugged — with their valuables, including cell phones, intact.

The Washington Post reports that discrepancies have emerged in the swimmers' accounts of the robbery. The alleged incident put Olympic teams from across the globe on alert, with tightened curfews and fresh suggestions that competitors avoid areas of Rio where they could be targets.

Lochte's attorney, Jeff Ostrow, tells the Times that his client, a gold medalist at the games, stands by his statement. Ostrow claimed authorities were trying to deflect criticism. “The country has a dark cloud over it for a million and one reasons, from their economy to their crime to their management of the Olympics,” Ostrow told the paper.

The four swimmers said they left "France House" early Sunday morning in a taxi headed for the Olympic Village when the cab was stopped by individuals posing as armed police officers, according to a statement Sunday from USOC. The individuals demanded the athletes' money and personal belongings.

The thieves took the swimmers' wallets and money, but Lochte said they left his cell phone and Olympic credentials.

Conflicting reports had surfaced earlier in the day about the alleged robbery with the International Olympic Committee saying the report was not true. Lochte's mother, Ileana Lochte, told USA Today that the swimmer was robbed at gunpoint.

"They had gone to the bathroom in a gas station," Lauer said Wednesday from his phone conversation with Lochte. "They got back to the taxi, and when they told the taxi driver to go, he didn't move. They said, 'let's go' again, 'we've got to get out of here,' and again the taxi driver didn't move. And that's when he says two men approached the car with guns and badges."

The other discrepancy Lochte discussed was whether one of the robbers had actually put a gun to Lochte's forehead.

"That's not exactly what happened," Lochte said, according to a USA Today story. Lochte told Lauer one of the robbers cocked the gun and pointed it inches away from him, but not right at his forehead as he first said.

Includes reporting by Deb Belt

Photo: Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger; Credit: Team USA/Flickr