US Olympic Committee apologises over behaviour of swimming quartet
By Reuters
Last Updated: 19/08/16 3:26pm
The United States Olympic Committee has apologised to the people of Brazil for the behaviour of four swimmers, including superstar Ryan Lochte, who were found to have lied about a gunpoint robbery, prompting enormous criticism of the Games host city.
America's official Olympic body acknowledged that one of its athletes had committed an act of vandalism in a petrol station bathroom and the swimmers had handed over money to security staff after they had demanded payment for the damage in the early hours of Sunday.
"The behaviour of these athletes is not acceptable, nor does it represent the values of Team USA," USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun said in a statement on Thursday night.
The USOC's final account differed wildly from an interview given by gold medallist Lochte, 32, on NBC, in which he said he and team-mates Jack Conger, Gunnar Bentz and Jimmy Feigen had been robbed by men posing as police and that he'd had a gun put to his head.
Bentz and Conger finally flew out of Brazil on Thursday night after visiting a police station earlier in the day to revise their statements. The pair landed in Miami early on Friday.
The USOC also said on Thursday that Feigen, the only one of the swimmers left in Brazil, had also revised his statement to Brazilian authorities.
"Feigen provided a revised statement this evening with the hope of securing the release of his passport as soon as possible," the USOC said.
"On behalf of the United States Olympic Committee, we apologise to our hosts in Rio and the people of Brazil for this distracting ordeal in the midst of what should rightly be a celebration of excellence."
Feigen's attorney, Breno Costa, said the swimmer has been ordered to pay $11,000 (£8,000) to a charity in Brazil.
Under the agreement, Feigen will make the donation, get his passport back and depart the country.
Rio's mayor Eduardo Paes has also accepted the USOC's apology, but he said he had "pity and contempt" for the four swimmers.
Paes said the quartet's behaviour did not represent the good spirit that the rest of the American delegation had shown and also emphasised that US tourists were always welcome in his city.
