This is one for the US State Department. I think we owe the gas station owner a door.
By Ben Rohrbach
...During multiple interviews (click here) with members of NBC’s Today show, Lochte has stood by the robbery story.
“We got pulled over in our taxi and these guys came out with a badge, a police badge,'” Lochte told the Today show’s Billy Bush in a taped interview Sunday. “No lights, no nothing, just a police badge. They pulled us over, they pulled out their guns. They told the other swimmers to get down on the ground. They got down on the ground. I refused. I was like, ‘We didn’t do anything wrong,’ so I’m not getting down on the ground. And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and said ‘get down. I put my hands up. I was like ‘whatever.’ He took our money, he took my wallet.”
Speaking with Today host Matt Lauer Wednesday, Lochte reiterated, “We wouldn’t make this story up. We’re victims in this and we’re happy that we’re safe.” However, the six-time Olympic gold medalist altered details about his original story during Wednesday’s conversation with Lauer, saying the they stopped at the gas station to use the men’s room and the gun was pointed in his “general direction.”
Gutman’s report on Thursday morning appears to contradict Lochte’s account of the alleged robbery.
Bentz, Conger and Feigen are all cooperating with Brazilian police, according to the USOC. Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee spokesman Mario Andrada issued the following strange statement:
Official statement (click here) from IOC #Rio2016 spokesman Mario Andrada on #LochteGate. It's amazing.
"I do not regret for having apologized. No apologize for him or the other athletes are needed. We have to understand these kids came here to have fun. Let's give these kids a break. Sometimes you make decisions you later regret. They had fun, they made a mistake, life goes on."
