Lochte takes responsibility for ‘immature behaviour’

In his first public comments since the story unravelled, the 12-time Olympic medallist told NBC he took the blame for what ultimately became a high-profile global incident between the United States and Brazil. That story, though, as several holes and weakness, including video that shows them in the hours following the alleged incident seemingly OK.

“That’s why I’m taking full responsibility for it, is because I overexaggerated that story and if I had never done that, we wouldn’t be in this mess”, Lochte said in an interview broadcast in part late Saturday. “Why, I wondered, would Lochte make this up”. “So we gave them money and we got out”.

Tons of memes are circulating online, but what I love more are the hashtags – primarily #LocheMess and #LochteGate.

Srour said Brazilian judges are notorious for pursuing cases such as Lochte’s if charges are filed and that Brazilian authorities could use Interpol and other worldwide organizations to complicate his overseas travel. James Feigen, the swimmer who called in the robbery, was ordered to pay almost $11,000 in damages for falsely reporting a crime.

Somehow, a bathroom door was broken down, and according to New York Times Sports, the security guards pulled a gun on Lochte and his fellows, forcing them to pay for the damage, which they did.

“We just wanted to get out of there”.

“There was a gun pointed in our direction”.

This video below is a portion of a news segment originally broadcast on Brazil’s O Globo, commenting on the incident involving US swimmers at a gas station, as captured on surveillance video.

“I don’t want (people) to look at me (and think) he was a drunk frat boy or whatever”, Lochte said. “There was a gun pointed in our direction”. Bentz said the guards confronted them after they had urinated behind some bushes and Lochte tore the poster from the wall. Last night, head of USA Swimming Chuck Wielgus put out a statement saying the team “does not condone the lapse in judgement and conduct that led us to this point”, and the U.S. Olympic Committee Thursday night had to apologize to the nation of Brazil for thrusting Lochte upon them. Later Wednesday, Bentz and Conger were pulled off a flight out of Rio.