It has been a difficult Olympics for Ryan Lochte. Overshadowed by his rival Michael Phelps (again), beaten into fifth in his favourite event, and mugged on his way home from a night out. But at least-it appears-he has managed to get home before being arrested by Brazilian police.
On Saturday night, Lochte initially claimed, men purporting to be police officers stopped the taxi he and three of his US swimming team-mates were travelling in before forcing them to the ground-putting "a gun to" Lochte's "forehead" when he initially refused-and stealing their money and wallets (Lochte's mother had initially brought the story to the media's attention when she claimed her son was "shaken up" by the incident). However, Lochte changed his story a couple of days later, saying that the gun was aimed in his "general direction" and that, instead of being stopped by men pretending to be cops, the taxi had pulled over to allow them to use the bathroom.
In the immediate aftermath of Lochte's story, an IOC spokesman initially said that reports of the incident were "absolutely not true"-responding to a statement from the US Olympic Committee describing the alleged events. Lochte said he had initially been reluctant to tell the USOC what had happened out of a fear of getting "in trouble".
But now it has emerged that police are experiencing doubts about the credibility of the twelve-time Olympic medallist's account of the incident, as well as that of his team-mate Jimmy Feigen, and a judge has ordered police to seize the duo's passports in order to hold them back for questioning in Brazil.
Police are said to have highlighted "inconsistencies" in the swimmers' accounts, such as CCTV footage that appears to show them returning to the Olympic village around 7AM when they told police they had arrived back into their accommodation area closer to 4AM. In a statement, Judge Keyla Blanc de Cnop referred to footage of the swimmers arriving "without signs of being physically or psychologically shaken, even joking amongst themselves" as they returned to the Village-not exactly the behaviour of men who had recently been mugged. Lochte's lawyer replied that he "stands behind his statement".
The steps taken by the judge may have come too late, however, as Lochte has already returned to the States -something his father confirmed to the Associated Press and his lawyer to the BBC. Lochte had already set foot on US soil and was busy purchasing a new wallet, his father said, while news of the judge's order broke. As for Feigen, he told US media that he was in Rio, "safe", and just wanted to "get out of here".
The USOC confirmed that further testimony had been sought from Lochte and Feigen but that this hadn't been possible because the US team had already moved out of the village when police had arrived.
The news of the judge's order came this morning around the same time that the Guardian reported a robbery of a British athlete in the small hours of the night as they returned from a night of partying in Rio; British athletes were warned in the aftermath of the incident of the dangers of heading out after dark and advised that it simply wasn't "worth the risk".
