RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And what happened to Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and three other
teammates last weekend has become the focus of global attention.
Lochte
claimed he was robbed at gunpoint, and that made a lot of news at the
time, tarnishing the image of the Rio Games. But Brazilian police now
say, after an investigation, that he lied.
And this morning, on
Instagram, Lochte made this apology. Quote, "I should have been much
more responsible in how I handled myself, and for that, am sorry to my
teammates."
Here's NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro from Rio de Janeiro.
LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, BYLINE:
To a crowded news conference,
Rio's civil police chief, Fernando Veloso, said this last night,
categorically...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
FERNANDO VELOSO: (Speaking Portuguese).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: "There was no robbery in the way it was reported by the athletes."
A short sentence, but one that has a lot of repercussions.
Veloso
says Brazil's police have investigated the matter and that Ryan Lochte,
Gunnar Bentz, Jimmy Feigen and Jack Conger were not the victims of a
crime but rather, the perpetrators of one.
According to the police, the
four were returning from a late-night party when they stopped at a gas
station. They allegedly vandalized the bathroom. They urinated on the
side of the building. And then they were stopped from leaving until the
police showed up. Lochte, the police says, became belligerent, and a
security guard pulled his gun. Eventually, the group paid around $50 in
restitution and left. And that was that until Lochte made his alleged
robbery public.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VELOSO: (Speaking Portuguese).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Veloso is saying the swimmers are people who made
a mistake under the influence of alcohol, and so an apology should be
made to the people of Rio who saw their city stained by this fantasy
version of events.
Lochte changed his story a few times. First, he told the press
that men dressed as police robbed him and put a gun to his head after
being stopped on a road. Then he flipped and said the robbery had indeed
taken place at a gas station, but he insisted he was the victim of a
crime. The police now say the other swimmers confirmed the police's
version of events.
The U.S. Olympic Committee, in a statement last night, apologized
to, quote, "our hosts in Rio and the people of Brazil for this
distracting ordeal in the midst of what should be rightly a celebration
of excellence." It says it will review any potential consequences for
the athletes after the Olympics.
Bentz and Conger have already left Brazil. Feigen, according to
his lawyer, has been fined the equivalent of $10,800 for giving false
testimony. The money will reportedly be given to The Reaction Institute,
a sporting program for at-risk youth here. And then he, too, will also
leave Brazil, ending a deeply embarrassing episode for U.S. sports.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro.
Welcome to the blog!
Welcome to Mr Tetard's blog !
This is the blog of Mr Tetard, English teacher in Lycée Gustave Eiffel in Armentières (in the north of France, near Lille & Belgium)
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