RIO DE JANEIRO — U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun says further action is coming in the matter of 12-time swimming medalist Ryan Lochte and his three teammates whose story of a robbery overshadowed the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Blackmun offered no details on what disciplinary action may be coming, but he made no effort to hide his frustration with the situation. Blackmun said the swimmers let down other U.S. athletes and the country.
Lochte says he “over-exaggerated” what happened at a Rio de Janeiro gas station and acknowledged his “immature behavior” got him and three teammates into a mess that consumed the final days of the Olympics.
In a portion of an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer that aired Saturday, Lochte continued backtracking from a story he initially described as an armed robbery. Police have said the swimmers vandalized a bathroom and armed guards confronted them and asked them to pay for the damage.
Lochte said “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.”
But he admitted that he understood that he was being told that the Americans had to pay for the damages or the police would be called.
