As we have been reporting over the last few days, Ryan Lochte, Jimmy Feigen, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were robbed and held up at gunpoint early Sunday morning after spending a night out following the final session of the Olympic swimming competition.
News has continued to break about the story all week, including the IOC denying the incident happened all together, and Lochte’s mom revealing that it in fact did happen. Lochte confirmed that it was true the following day and spoke about it on NBC.
A lot of the ongoing issues have stemmed from the fact that the swimmers did not file a police report, nor did they initially inform the USOC about the incident.
Things seem to have escalated once again, as the police have reportedly banned Lochte and Feigen from leaving the country until the story becomes clear and evidence is revealed, according to oglobo.com.
The police apparently received contradictory reports from both Lochte and Feigen about the incident, and the statements from the taxi driver don’t match up with their story.
Once the authorities found out that Lochte had already left the country on Monday, they obtained a warrant and searched the swimmers’ rooms in the Olympic village, mainly to locate Feigen’s cell phone to determine their location during the time of the attack. None of the four swimmers were found by police at the village, according to Globo.
USOC spokesperson Patrick Sandusky spoke about the incident, stating “there was no effort to detain anyone, but police did have further questions this a.m. It is a matter for our consulate and U.S. citizen services and we will continue to cooperate with all involved”, per USA Today.
There is no information as to why Bentz and Conger were not included in the report that suggests Lochte and Feigen were banned from leaving the country.
May we please put away a few of the Big Guns. Not Olympians. Thanks
I think Rio is claiming Ryan fabricated this story because they don’t want any more bad publicity about Rio being an unsafe country to travel to…
Has anyone come to the conclusion that maybe the Brazilian police pressured the taxi driver to change his story to be less
“incriminating”? Happens relatively frequently in corrupt judicial proceedings.
More on Brazil justice:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/06/deadly-side-rio-olympics-2016/
well just saw it on NY Times that Bentz and Conger were being pulled off their flight at the airport (leaving Rio) and held by the police.
In any case, I am not surprise that they each remember the event slightly different – considered they were drunk and in a foreign country where they probably don’t know street name or direction.
Just read another account of robbery at gun point by armed police ( a 27-year-old jiu-jitsu national champion from Wellington), 13 days before the game started on The Sydney Morning Herald. There was detail account of the incident and how the police tell the victim not to report to police.
I remember reading about that at the time in the British press and it’s one of the first things I thought of when news first broke on Lochte’s robbery.
The New Zealand athlete, named Jason Lee, had been living in Brazil for 10 months and said he was held at gunpoint and forced to hand over cash to men in police uniforms.
The national jujitsu champion claimed he was forced to “withdraw large sums of money from two cash machines as a bribe”.
Stuff.co.nz reported that the athlete was wrongly told that driving a hire car without a passport was illegal in Brazil and forced to withdraw 2000 Brazilian Reais to avoid being reported to the federal police. Mr… Read more »
I would like to point out that I’m FAR more concerned with the well-being of OUR swimmers than whether or not Brazil carries out its purported “investigation” into this matter. We know for a FACT that multiple criminal incidents have already occurred involving athletes and reps. We also know for a FACT that Brazil has a problem with corruption – and if you don’t, do a simple Google search.
In all the time we’ve known Ryan Lochte, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of him being involved in controversy or spurious behavior of any sort. He’s always been a great ambassador of the sport, and this is wholly not in keeping with the character he has demonstrated. Even so, … Read more »
I think NBC is likely under tremendous pressure from the IOC to keep their reporting about the administration of the Games positive. There was next to no talk about the safety of the water in the boating/open water venues, despite intense scrutiny in other press outlets in the lead up to the Games. None of the other incidents involving violence against athletes have been reported by NBC. I wouldn’t be surprised if the IOC got upset about the negative reporting about venues etc. in Sochi and has cracked down on NBC now, under threat of withdrawing broadcasting rights in the future.
So Attila the Hunt has outright stated that Lochte lied and has implied that his mother has as well. I’m all for freedom of speech, but at what point does he get called out for making libelous claims that are not grounded in fact?
Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger are right now at a police station in Rio, testifying and providing their version of the fact.
Source: http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/policia-federal-retira-nadadores-americanos-de-aviao-para-os-eua-19945146
Wow. I didn’t think this could get any weirder.