Ryan Lochte just posted an apology to his Twitter – go here to see the post. His apology comes after James Feigen “agreed” to pay $11,000 to charity so that the Brazilian authorities would return his passport and he could leave the country. The apology also comes after Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger were finally allowed to fly home – they’ve already arrived. The statement feels like a coordination between the State Department, the USOC and Lochte’s lawyers. While Lochte takes responsibility for his actions and apologizes for everything that happened, he maintains that he was held at gunpoint.
Ryan Lochte is finally doing a mea culpa for the lie he told on NBC that’s become an international incident … but he kind of doubled down on the version of events he told cops.
Lochte just posted … “I want to apologize for my behavior last weekend — for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events of that early morning and for my role in taking the focus away from the many athletes fulfilling their dreams of participating in the Olympics. I waited to share these thoughts until it was confirmed that the legal situation was addressed and it was clear that my teammates would be arriving home safely.”
Lochte continues … “It’s traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country – with a language barrier – and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave, but regardless of the behavior of anyone else that night, I should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself and for that I am sorry to my teammates, my fans, my fellow competitors, my sponsors, and the hosts of this great event.”
He goes on to say he’s proud to rep the USA in Olympic competition and this was a situation that could and should have been avoided.
He adds, “I accept responsibility for my role in this happening and have learned some valuable lessons. I am grateful for my USA Swimming teammates and the USOC, and appreciate all of the efforts of the IOC, the Rio ’16 Host Committee, and the people of Brazil who welcomed us to Rio and worked so hard to make sure that these Olympic Games provided a lifetime of great new memories. There has already been too much said and too many valuable resources dedicated to what happened last weekend, so I hope we spend our time celebrating the great stories and performances of these Games and look ahead to celebrating future successes.”
The statement is clearly crafted to thwart police efforts to have Lochte prosecuted. The biggest problem the swimmer faces … going on TV, trashing the city by claiming armed men posed as cops robbed him as he was innocently taking a cab back to the Village.
I would say that Lochte’s lawyers crafted this apology with a lot of help from a lot of different people. It is very carefully worded. But I hope everyone can just move on now. He apologized, he took responsibility, and he maintained that for whatever bad acts he might have committed, he was still held at gunpoint and money was taken from him. I never thought Lochte was “trashing the city” as much as he lied/embellished the details around the mugging in the press.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
He wasn’t necessarily trashing the city, figuratively speaking (he literally did by doing property damage lol). But people were in his defense and that’s sad.
I suspected it was a possible communication barrier here.
I personally see no need for him to apologize to a corrupt city that was exacting revenge on this mugging being brought to light by detaining US citizens and threatening to prosecute them – the victims. I’ll never to go Brazil.
Because of the way that Brazilian authorities have handled this incident and the other dangerous situations that athletes faced, Brazil has been crossed off my want to visit list.
Yeah sorry I really just can’t with the Brazilian officials, this whole scenario reeks of corruption and cover up. Being drunk and rowdy does not excuse a gun pointed at them and their money being take forcefully. If they damaged property the police should have been called and the situation dealt with from there. The fact that they made Feigen pay $11,000 just furthers the corruption in my opinion. The IOC, USOC and Brazilian officials are all corrupt, Rio was a disaster before the Olympics began. In fact it was a disaster from the World Cup – which people forget there were numerous assaults and robberies then as well… but that seems to have been brushed away- A place like Rio should never have been awarded the Olympics. My husband visited Rio for the world cup and several of his friends were robbed, it’s a scary place and they didn’t even leave the hotel at night. My husband said you make one wrong turn and end up on the wrong street and you won’t be found.
+10000
+1
Brazil has a lot of faults and many have been obvious during these Olympics but that’s not an excuse to use it as a way to look the other way when an athlete misbehaves in a context with this kind of media attention.
I’m not Brazilian but I speak portuguese and I can tell you, that considering the circumstances Lochte and the others totally tried to play against the credibility of Brazil’s officials to get away with it. Athletes were not being vilified, but Brazil was. Reality is bad as it is, they don’t need a famous athlete to trash them without substancial complaints. They behaved like many tourists do when abroad, with a complete disrespect for the country they are visiting, doing stuff they wouldn’t do at home.
With that being said, Brazil didn’t handle this well, but that doesn’t mean these athletes are innocent and solely victims of police brutality.
And where is the proof of the alleged vandalism? All I’ve seen actual evidence of is a torn poster. The swimmers stories basically haven’t altered, but the authorities stories changed everyday. First, there was no incident at all. Then, there was an incident but no gun was involved. Then, oh yes, there was a gun involved. And the security footage released has 3 minutes edited out of it. Why on earth would I believe the authorities?
Authorities said there was no incident because at the time because nothing had been officially reported. A lot that’s been out by the media in english comes with a bias and the different versions around reflect that. And swimmers actually had different vesrions of the story, which changed when the story got really big.
And even if you had images of the damages people would say it was made up by the Brazilians.
And how on earth you go through what they claimed happened and don’t comunicate it to the authorities or the American Olympic committee? Why would I believe the swimmers then?
Exactly
I’m more bothered by how so many people seem to dismiss this as just another “boys will be boys” incident. The guy is 32 years old, right? He really should know better than to lie like this.
YES!
I’m more bothered by people acting like it’s normal for an armed security guard to point a gun at someone and extort money for…breaking a mirror? Tearing a poster? I mean, I don’t condone that behavior, but in my country the proper way to handle it is to file a police report and press charges for criminal damage.
What does it say about Rio that this was NOT an option for the gas station owners?
THIS! Laws are different in Brazil, I’m sure, but in the US if you mess up a poster (the only thing that has really been shown, not the door) and a security guard holds you at gunpoint for money then he would be dealing with some charges as well.
He is 32 but Jack and Gunner are 21 and still in college. I think for those two there was pressure to go along with the “famous” Ryan and so I do feel some compassion for them.
Exactly Bre. Then if you don’t pay up for a ripped poster, the cops are called. And depending on the colour of your skin you are either let off with a warning or shot dead because the cup “feared for his life”.
Don’t ever hold up the USA as the beacon of police stability. It’s a freaking mess.
To quote Beyonce for a sec.. * Middle Fingers Up!* Boy, Bye
add 2 fingers more from me.
what a non-apology followed by lame excuses.
I hope he reimburses Feigen for at least part of the $11,000. While he still has some endorsement money left. It must have been frustrating knowing that the guy who talked the most wasn’t detained like the rest of them.
I think Lochte is a moron and that he really does still believe he was held up at gunpoint…he just conveniently failed to mention why they were extorted. What a bizarre scandal.
He wasn’t detained because he left before they could detain him… maybe the other three should have left a day earlier?
I get that. I think he got lucky with a flight that was scheduled earlier. I’m just saying it had to be frustrating for the other guys.
+1
He and his pals were the ugly Americans that people overseas have complained about for my entire lifetime. They may not recognize security and police officers from Brazil, and they may have mistakenly thought they were being mugged because of a language barrier, but they still pissed on the walls of a men’s room, broke mirrors, and acted like entitles douchebags. It blows my mind that people defend this behavior. I know people who go to Rio frequently and they adore it, but those people don’t treat Brazilian restrooms like trash cans and then lie about it.
This..from what I’ve read, it is my impression he made the story up because he was desperate his girlfriend would not find out what he was really up to that night…and I’m sure we eventually will find out what he really was doing…
This. I can’t believe people are still defending this privileged, entitled douche bag. What an embarrassment to the many wonderful, polite and respectful American athletes out there.
I don’t believed they were rob, when they returned back to the Olympic village after 7am and after passing through the security checkpoint, they make a stop at the Olympic rings to snap a few pictures together, seemingly without a care in the world. They where out for fun and if you were robbed wouldn’t you tell the security at the check point..? Or Would you just snap acouple of fun pics..? It was all just a fun silly adventure for them. Unfortunately Ryan had to stretch the truth to his mum and the old saying if you tell a lie than you have to tell another, is a classic example of this. While I don’t think they where rob, I’m open to think they may have been taken advantage of. Sure some guys at a gas station may have saw some drunk USA dudes and thought $$$. But I’m also open to to think the oppersite and some drunk USA dudes thought it was funny to damaged some stuff. Either way, I think to much has gone into this and perhaps resources and time would be better spent actually chasing real leads and criminals. Lord knows there has been so many reports from athletics and tourist.
Show me the video of them ‘trashing the bathroom and breaking mirrors and everything else’, please?? There isn’t a video of that. It’s that simple. Maybe a little pee is worth being detained at an airport and having your passport taken while paying 11k in Brazil?! I won’t even use American gas station bathrooms because, umm, they are dumps. You wouldn’t be able to tell if they did pee all over because 100 other people already did that year and nobody cleaned it. Gag. No, they shouldn’t have peed in another place than the toilet…but you honestly think being yanked from a jet, passport taken, being detained and questioned for HOURS…then paying 11k after you were already robbed at gunpoint is justice for some pee?!?!?!?!?!? Damn. Not even mentioning the language barrier?!?!?! Come on people. These swimmers aren’t criminals. It’s unreal people think this was handled the correct way. TMZ took a picture of the bathroom right after it happened. The ONLY thing broken was a sign on a door, of sub sandwiches. It had a crack in the cardboard. That’s it.
All this.
“The ONLY thing broken was a sign on a door.” So you KNOW they did it. I saw the video. I will not show you the video. You think he is the victim, he is a child. Oh, poor boy. Bentz said they did it. It IS true. They ARE criminals.
That guy paid 11k in Brazil because he LIED. He is a criminal.
He chose to be out late at night in a foreign country – don’t blame what happened later on a “language barrier.” He was not robbed at gun point and he hightailed it out of the country and left his teammates hanging the bag.
So him having a gun being drawn on him and being forced to hand over cash is what to you?
It is the way it’s done in developing countries. They claimed their wallets were stolen, they weren’t. They claimed their car was stopped, it wasn’t. Mama’s boy Ryan needed his mother for emotional support and told her a sob story. This caused a huge incident and Ryan has not taken responsibility.
In several accounts there was a person who offered to translate for the swimmers who stated that the gas station attends was trying to get them to stay until the police arrived. I’d say they willingly handed over money to avoid getting the police involved and having this reported. They were let go before the police arrived. It is certainly possible that a Brazilian security guard did not know the swimmers by sight. Sure, he knew that they were American athletes, but it seems very plausible that it took a bit to connect a drunken gas station vandalism incident with the story that was first reported.
I hope that having a gun pointed at you causes you to realize that laws are different outside your home country, and when you piss on them it might get scary. I’m hoping it was a lesson, but with the amount of people defending him I doubt it’s going to happen.
What? So people visiting foreign countries shouldn’t go out late at night? That’s ridiculous.
And he was held at gun point (even the Brazilian police chief, Veloso, confirmed this) until they handed money over. Sounds like robbery to me.
No, in his apology he says it was “traumatic” to be out late in a foreign country. I’m just saying it was his choice to go out – don’t blame Brazil for being a foreign country.
As far as the gun goes, he has waffled and gone from it being against his head to pointed at him to being out and around. He has backtracked and changed details so many times already.
He has changed details exactly one time.. where are you getting so many times from? And he changed exactly two details of the story… they weren’t pulled over, they were stopped at a gas station and the gun wasn’t held against his head but rather pointed at him, which he repeated above. Reread his statement above, he hasn’t backtracked anything.
He was robbed at gunpoint. I’m sorry when someone points a gun at you and demands cash, Angel, it’s a robbery.
He wasn’t just referring to “being out late at night” as traumatic, but having a gun pointed at him as being part of that trauma. I agree. If someone pointed a gun at me, regardless of whether it was to my head or anywhere else on my body, I’d feel traumatised by it too. I think most people would.
I just don’t get this kid, he’s always behaved like he has rocks in his head.
He’s no kid
He’s 32 years old. He’s a grown man.
I’m sorry but having a “guard” threaten you with a gun until you give him money, is a robbery in my opinion and holding someone hostage and keeping their passport until they “donate” $11,000 is kidnapping. Maybe I’m old-fashioned that way.
Yeah… This is INCREDIBLY sketchy. Can’t the swimmers be asshats AND victims? This whole thing is insane. And if they were held at gunpoitn for “damages” um hell no. Pretty sure that guard isn’t a plumber or a contractor who could figure out the supposed cost of the bathroom damages- also funny how we aren’t seeing the proof of damages. Then to be forced to pay to get the passport back – good god. Maybe they were drunken asshats who SHOULD be paying for damages. But the extortion here is scary.
The thing I wonder about is the state of the bathroom. Was it clean and immaculate and did it have readily available toilets? Was it in good shape where young drunk men could lean on the doors and have them not break. I’ve been to some very shady gas station bathrooms that were far from pristine, And one time I legit broke a door leaning on it in drunken heaviness.
Exactly, this! I actually feel sorry for Lochte and the other swimmers at this point.
Some of his details may have been confused, which is understandable if one is drunk when said event occurs. I also don’t think Lochte is particularly, intelligent, articulate or precise. He’s no criminal genius. Out of all the parties involved, I think there’s more truth in his account, but I suspect he’s had to retract some of his story as part of the deal for dropping charges the authorities threatened him and the other swimmers with.
Or maybe you just don’t know Brazilian law, or really what happened.
Security guards are allowed to carry guns. Pretty sure USA security guards also carry guns. And point them at people who are getting aggressive.
According to a witness who was helping the swimmers with translations at the petrol station, they were abusive and Lochte was aggressive. The security guard told the taxi driver they were not to leave and he made them sit on the curb until police arrived. They offered a small amount of money for the damage ($20). In the meantime the manager arrived, the manager told them what he wanted. They could have waited for the police, but they paid and left.
Feigan made a false statement to police. The penalty for false statements can be 6 months jail time. Alternatively in Brazilian law, for small crimes you can make a donation to a charity to free yourself. That is what he did. If you are being questioned or detained for a crime, they take your passport (which is not unusual in any country where someone has the chance of fleeing). The others did not sign a false statement so they were not being charged with the offence.
Again, where is the proof of destruction? How do you know they weren’t being shaken down for something they didn’t do? Or just for peeing in the alley when they couldn’t get into a broken bathroom door?
Because of the body language on the attendants while they were in the bathroom, because of their body language after they left the bathroom. Because of the witness statement of the bystander who was translating. Because the swimmers lied about events, and finally, because their own lawyers said so.
That’s proof enough for me. Haven’t heard the swimmers denying they damaged the bathroom, and if they did, considering everything else they lied about, I wouldn’t believe them.
If they really were robbed by security guards at a particular petrol station, and we’re scared that they had guns pointed at their heads in the way that Lochte described, they would hardly be laughing, joking and taking selfies moments later. They would have reported it to police, who would know exactly where the perpetrators worked complete with cctv.
Thank you for warning me to never go to Brazil. (if security guards robbing people is legal)
@Ginger Gal, thank you. I would charge Brazil with kidnapping!!!! I am a world traveler and will never go to Brazil now. Unreal.
I wonder if he knows what half of those words mean. #Jeah.
He’s sticking to the mugging story because admitting to the lie puts him in legal jeopardy.
Or, he’s telling the truth; that he and his friends were held at gun point by a man in uniform, and were forced to give money for the alleged damage they caused. This has been documented on film which TMZ showed on their website.
If they cause damaged, they of course should pay the cost of repairs, but holding a person at gunpoint is not the right way to resolve that dispute.
WOW. The way this whole thing was messily handled by officials, and how these grown-ass white guys behaved though… team nobody.
THIS!
My cousin married a girl from Moscow, and throughout my lifetime knowing her and her stories and advice on how to behave (for my cousin) when they go over there, what Ryan and that team describes sounds an awful lot like how my cousins wide describes police incidents in Russia. She’s been very adamant that citizens don’t trust the police because they do things exactly like this and more often than not the citizens are victims of the police corruption there because there’s nothing they can do about it. I don’t doubt for one minute that they were actually robbed and extorted. It doesn’t excuse their behavior at all and I’m not comparing all police and all countries mentioned to be the same. It looks like an opportunity that was completely taken advantage of by people who knew they could get away with it.
Officially Feigen is paying that money but I don’t actually believe it’s him writing the check. The IOC pays the U.S. tax bill for all its athletes who earn medals (because they are considered winnings and the bill is STEEP, most amateur athletes can’t afford it). They have the money to “lose” $11, 000 somewhere. I wouldn’t worry about James Feigen’s personal bank account.
The IOC pays the US tax bill for those athletes who win medals? Does it do this for all athletes in other countries?
No – the US does some weird thing and not only taxes the athletes on the prize money but also on a notional value of the medal. Nobody else does this so no need for the IOC to step in. I read this the other day. Hang on…
… got it!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37099066
Ah okay. I didn’t even realise US athletes got paid for winning medals so I was confused by it all! Thanks for that.
I wonder if this means that his swimming career is over.
Agree with all the posters- yes there was some creative embellishment but essentially they were still held at gunpoint and all their cash taken. The 11k to skate just proves their point.
They should have just copped to it from the beginning – saying they behaved badly, destroyed property, and were treated roughly by the police. I think people would have felt sympathy for them then, but now they’re just liars.
Yes. It sounds like they weren’t going to say anything at all until Lochte told his mom the half-story and she went public. Had he any inkling it would blow up into an international incident I’m sure he wouldn’t have said anything to her. People on other sites are saying how the big lesson learned is never tell your mom anything, lol.
Brazil didn’t play this right. I still can’t believe they were pulling passports and detaining people over this broekn sign on a bathroom door. He never once said he was robbed by ‘the police’, he was robbed by ‘men who flashed a badge’. He wasn’t disrespecting all of Rio. That’s such a far reach that it’s funny. Reporters went to the exact bathroom and the only thing even remotely broken was the sandwich sign on the door, I kid you not!! The language barrier alone is enough for anyone to understand, by all accounts, they were robbed at gunpoint. Several hundred dollars was taken from them. Plain and simple! So, the other guy is being robbed again of 11k because that’s the only way Brazil will give him his passport back?!?! Unbelievable. Brazil and the Olympic officials should have just said this was a miscommunication. I can’t believe this is such a massive story.
Am I missing something… how is holding someone at gunpoint and demanding cash, regardless of what for, not a robbery? Both Lochte and the Rio police CONFIRM this happened. The Rio police and some of the people commenting on this site seem to be confused as to what the definition of a robbery is so I am providing one for you: ” Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear. ” Being held at gunpoint and being told they had to pay money so they can leave is the definition of robbery. Some of you are clearly missing the point here… this is not how you handle destruction of property. If I pointed a gun at someone who slashed the tires on my car or threw an egg at my car and demanded they hand over all the cash they had on them, you can bet that the cops would be knocking at my door later to arrest me for robbery.
Stop giving me this bullsh*t this is how developing countries or third world countries work..Stop doing mental gymnastics to defend the actions of the gas station owner and security here. The gas station owner even said he recognized Ryan Lochte… he probably thought he could and he did, shake him down for money.
I’m not excusing Lochte’s actions or him initially lying about being pulled over and leaving out what had allegedly happened at the gas station. But this doesn’t excuse the gas station owner’s actions or the security guard’s actions. Nor does it excuse what Brazil is doing to Jimmy Feigen by forcing him to pay $11,000 so he can obtain his passport back.
By all means argue that I am defending these athletes by simply pointing out a fact that is NOT in dispute: A gun was held on them and they were forced to give the gas station owner cash by men in security guard uniforms. In his interview with Billy Bush, he said men posing as police officers and said a gun was held against his head but he never directly accused police officers themselves of taking their cash. But Brazil did just that by forcing Jimmy Feigen to pay $11,000 to get his passport back. It doesn’t matter who is paying for it, what matters is that is extortion. And for what? Supposed acts of vandalism? No, they are extracting this because they feel Lochte embarrassed them.. they just did that all by themselves. Yanking two swimmers off a plane, holding up another swimmer’s passport all because like some people commenting on here they don’t seem to listen very well to interviews. Lochte never said a police officer mugged him nor did he imply a police officer mugged him. I am tired of this being stated as a fact when is not. He said men dressed up in police uniforms giving the impression that the people were posing as police officers. And security uniforms do resemble police uniforms, so it is easy to confuse them when you have been drinking and oh, when you have a gun pointed at you! Give me a break. This whole situation is ridiculous and to defend the actions of the gas station owner and security guard over property being vandalized? PROPERTY! What if they had shot and killed them? Would that have been okay? Where do some of you draw the line? Because I am really confused here.
I wouldn’t visit Rio simply for how they handled this entire situation. I wasn’t going to anyway.
Boom! The sound of the mic dropping. I don’t condone what these guys did but….this.
I agree with every word you said here, Noname, and I can’t understand how any fair and reasonable person of ANY nationality could possibly fail to see the truth and logic in your post.
Exactly all this! Boom! Well said.
Soooooo does the interview with Matt Lauer change your position at all?
Here’s the translation of this statement:
“I went out and got stupid drunk with my friends and can’t really remember what happened. I am now being told that the reason why a gun was pointed at me and money taken was that I caused property damage. If this is is true, I apologize for the damage and for getting so drunk I couldn’t control myself, but in that condition-not knowing the culture or the language- I felt like I was being robbed and I feel like I made a true statement to the police. I did my originally report this because I was alive, it was a couple hundred dollars, and nothing had been done about previous muggings so I felt like nothing would be done this time either. I regret that this turned into such an international incident. I was advised that to help my teammates gain their release and to save my endorsements I needed to take responsibility for my portion of the misunderstanding, but I honestly felt I was being robbed at that time.”
Again, I think Brazil is the one who made this worse. If they had issued a statement that they were looking into it, this probably would have been forgotten after a day. They could have even issued a statement later saying their investigations had turned up that the athletes were being made to pay for damages and they would have probably gotten real apologies. This all smells of extortion to let the other three leave the country.
That is a great translation Kelly!
You do realize that he made a false statement to the police right? That’s a crime. People get punished for crimes.
I don’t think this should have been an international incident, but if anyone escalated it, the swimmers did by sticking to their lie and then trying to get out of the country before they could be held accountable.
I believe some bad translation is happening in James Feigen’s case.
Feigen and Lochte officially reported a crime to the police. False report of a crime, in Brazil, is a crime itself. Since Lochte fled Brazil, he could not be reached for further questioning, but Feigen was still in Brazil and, since he made reservations to a fligtht back to the US, police retained his passport to make sure he would stay in the country.
The 11,000 amount is not in exchange of his passport. Feigen’s lawyer and the police reached an settlement so he would not face persecution for falsely reporting a crime.
*prosecution? I meant, so he wouldn’t need to answer in court for it.
How hard is it to just say “Sorry”. Young men (and women) with egos bigger than their brains are not solely an American phenomenon, unfortunately. When we treat young adults like toddlers they will behave like toddlers. If parents taught their children to treat other people and their property with the respect they deserve, incidents like this wouldn’t happen. The British Authorities have to deal with the aftermath of this sort of behaviour every summer when tourist hotspots around the world get invaded by badly behaved, spoilt, immature, drunken British oiks. Making excuses for inexcusable behaviour just makes things worse.
If he were really smart ( I KNOW) you know what he’d do? Work out a deal with the Brazil government for him to come back and volunteer. He’d look like he was genuinely sorry for this debacle, it would probably do a ton to help him clean up the embarrassment, and it would make the Brazilian government look super gracious AND get an abolute ton of good press, which they need. Because as it stands, no one looks good.
So is the only reason this episode came to light because he told this story to his mom?