Ryan Lochte apologises for Rio petrol station 'ruckus'
Sunday 21 August 2016 12:02, UK
American swimmer Ryan Lochte has said he exaggerated what happened at a Rio petrol station and admitted he was drunk during the incident that caused a scandal at the Olympics.
Lochte - who won gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay in Rio - has also apologised to Games host Brazil for causing the "ruckus" and taken full responsibility for the "mess".
The 32-year-old acknowledged it was his "immature behaviour" that got him and three team-mates into a controversy that cast a shadow over final days of the Games.
Lochte, in a portion of an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer that aired on US television on Saturday, continued backtracking from a story that he initially described as an armed robbery.
Police have said the swimmers vandalised a toilet after a night of partying and armed guards confronted them and asked them to pay for the damage.
"It's how you want to make it look like," Lochte said. "Whether you call it a robbery or whether you call it extortion or us just paying for the damages, we don't know. All we know is that there was a gun pointed in our direction and we were demanded to give money."
But he admitted he understood he was being told that the Americans had to pay for the damages or the police would be called.
At that point, Lauer said: "You're striking a deal. Is that fair?"
"We just wanted to get out of there," Lochte said, adding that the swimmers were frightened.
Lauer told Lochte that his story had changed from one about "the mean streets or Rio" to a negotiated settlement to cover up dumb behaviour.
"That's why I'm taking full responsibility for it, because I over-exaggerated the story," Lochte said. "If I had never done that, we wouldn't be in this mess."
Lochte also said he had lied in telling NBC interviewer Billy Bush the next day that a gun had been cocked and pointed at his forehead. He said that he was still under the influence of alcohol when he talked to Bush.
"I definitely had too much to drink that night and I was very intoxicated," he said.
