Brazil didn’t deserve this: ‘Immature’ Lochte says sorry over robbery ruckus

Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte has appeared in a Brazilian TV interview to apologise for exaggerating claims he and three of his team-mates were robbed at gunpoint. The American gold medallist, who came up with the story after a fracas at a filling station, professed his regrets on Globo TV, Brazil’s largest broadcaster. “I wasn’t lying to a certain extent,” he said. “I over-exaggerated what was happening to me.” But he added that he was sorry, saying: “Brazil doesn’t deserve that. I am sorry that my immaturity caused all this ruckus.”

That’s why I’m taking full responsibility for it, because I over-exaggerated the story. If I had never done that, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

Ryan Lochte

The incident blew up into a major embarrassment for the U.S. Olympic team after Lochte and his team-mates, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen, had claimed they were robbed at gunpoint by men with police badges. It later emerged they were confronted by an armed guard at a filling station after vandalising a door after a night drinking. Earlier, Lochte also appeared in a US TV interview to apologise over his behaviour. But he said: “It’s how you want to make it look like. 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.”

I definitely had too much to drink that night and I was very intoxicated

Ryan Lochte

ryan lochte