Police questioned three of the
gold medal winners and say "they were not victims of the crimes they
claimed".
Two of the four - Gunnar Bentz
and Jack Conger - were allowed to fly out of Rio on Thursday evening.
Ryan Lochte had already left, and
James Feigen remains in Brazil.
Mr Bentz and Mr Conger had been
taken off a plane at Rio airport on Wednesday and taken for questioning.
Mr Lochte had initially said the
four were robbed at gunpoint when they were returning by taxi from a club.
But Rio's civil police head
Fernando Veloso said the four Olympic gold medallists had not been robbed.
"No robbery was committed
against these athletes. They were not victims of the crimes they claimed,'' he
said.
He told reporters that one or
more of the athletes had instead vandalised a toilet in a petrol station and
then offered to pay for the damage.
The Americans paid and left after
armed security guards intervened, he said.
One guard had justifiably drawn
his gun after one of the swimmers began behaving erratically, Mr Veloso added.
He warned that the swimmers, who
had repeatedly changed their accounts of what happened, could "in
theory" face charges of giving false testimony and vandalism.
But later on Thursday, the men's
lawyer Sergio Riera said Mr Bentz and Mr Conger had been allowed to leave the
country by a special Olympic court.
"They are on their way to
the airport," Mr Riera said.
However, Mr Feigen remains in
Brazil.
He "provided a revised statement this evening
(Thursday) with the hope of securing the release of his passport as soon as
possible," said the
US Olympic Committee (USOC).
The USOC statement confirmed the
version of events given by Mr Veloso, and added that "the behaviour of
these athletes is not acceptable, nor does it represent the values of Team
USA".
Four views of Ryan Lochte
Slate:
"Maybe he's just a lunk, or
a doofus, or a Faulknerian idiot man-child, or the real-world analogue of Moose
from Archie. There are all sorts of unflattering descriptors that might apply
to Ryan Lochte."
Washington
Post:
"There is a special category
of obnoxious American 'bro' that Lochte represents, in his T-shirt and jeans and
expensive suede footwear, which he showed off on Instagram that night at the
party along with the price tag. 'We're 6k deep here,' he captioned it. Is there
anything worse, in any country, than a bunch of entitled young drunks who break
the furniture and pee on a wall?"
San
Francisco Chronicle:
"It doesn't matter what else
Lochte has done in his Olympic career. This cemented his legacy: most
embarrassing Olympic athlete."
New
York Post:
"He cried wolf and was
called on it, and that will be his burden to bear for a good long while - but
not his alone. The Ugly American is alive and well in 2016 thanks to this
dope."
Earlier, a Rio 2016
spokesman had tried to make light of the case.
"These kids tried
to have fun, they tried to represent their country to the best of their abilities,"
Mario Andrada told reporters.
"They competed
under gigantic pressure. Let's give these kids a break. Sometime you take
actions that you later regret.
"They had fun,
they made a mistake, life goes on."
How the story evolved
Sunday 14 August
§
Ryan Lochte's mother
tells US media her son has been robbed in Rio de Janeiro
§
Mr Lochte gives an account
of the events, saying he, Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and James Feigen
were returning by taxi from a club in the early hours of the morning when they
were robbed at gunpoint by men who forced the vehicle to pull over
§
The swimmers do not
report the incident to police or to the US Olympic Committee, and police
officers only get involved after seeing TV reports
Monday 15 August
§
Police investigating
the case say there are inconsistencies in the men's accounts
Tuesday 16 August
§
CCTV footage emerges
of the men's return to the athletes' village showing them laughing and joking,
and handing over wallets and phones as they go through the security screens
Wednesday 17 August
§
Ryan Lochte admits
there were inaccuracies in his original account of being robbed at gunpoint,
but vehemently denies
making the story up
§
Judge orders that the
passports of the four men be seized before it emerges that Mr Lochte has
already left for the US
§
Gunnar Bentz and Jack
Conger taken off a US-bound plane at Rio de Janeiro airport
Thursday 18 August
§
Brazilian police
sources tell media outlets that the men invented a story about a robbery to
disguise a dispute over a damaged bathroom door at a petrol station in Barra da
Tijuca, 16km (10 miles) from the Olympic Park
§
CCTV video emerges
that appears to show the athletes being detained and ordered to sit on the
ground
§
Gunnar Bentz and Jack
Conger enter a Rio police station for questioning
§
Head of Rio's civil
police emphatically denies a robbery took place, saying the case centred around
an incident of vandalism and payment for damage
§
Gunnar Bentz and Jack
Conger fly out of Rio, with James Feigen unable to travel as his passport is
still held by the Brazilian authorities
Who are the swimmers?
GETTY IMAGES
REUTERS
Lochte is one of the
most successful swimmers in history, with 12 Olympic medals, and he once had
his own reality television show in the US. In Rio, he swam in two events,
winning gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay along with Conger.
Feigen won gold in the
4x100m freestyle relay.
Bentz competed in the
4x200m preliminaries, but not the final. He still received a gold medal after
the US team's win.
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