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He gave an interview declaring he had been robbed at gunpoint but there’s now questions about what really happened to American swimmer Ryan Lochte and his teammates in Rio after a night of partying.
It comes as a Brazilian judge issued an order to prevent Lochte and fellow American swimmer James Feigen from leaving the country.
Lochte had already left the country by the time the order came through.
Originally Lochte said he and three other swimmers were robbed when men masquerading as armed police officers pulled over their taxi.
“They pulled out their guns, they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground – they got down on the ground. I refused, I was like we didn’t do anything wrong, so – I’m not getting down on the ground,” Lochte said after the night in question.
“And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, get down and I put my hands up, I was like ‘whatever.’ He took our money, he took my wallet – he left my cellphone, he left my credentials.”
However, officials aren’t convinced about the story with CCTV released by The Daily Mail showing the swimmers arriving back at the Olympic village in the early hours of the morning.
“You can see the supposed victims arriving without signs of being physically or psychologically shaken, even joking amongst themselves,” Judge Keyla Blanc de Cnop said in a statement.
At 2:25am on the Sunday morning before Lochte and his teammates were allegedly robbed, the swimmer posted video of himself at a nightclub. They didn’t arrive back to the athletes’ village until 6:56am.
Further CCTV reportedly show the swimmers leaving the club at 5:50am, meaning the whole ordeal would have taken place in that hour period.
Police are currently trying to track down the taxi driver on the night in question and have appealed for him to come forward.
Lochte and Feigen were the only ones to give accounts of the incident, and could not remember the colour of the taxi or where the alleged incident took place.
Lochte has since reportedly changed details of his account of being robbed in Rio, telling Today Show anchor Matt Laurer that a gun was pointed in his direction rather than at his head and that the taxi wasn’t actually pulled over.
“The swim team moved out of the village after their competition ended, so we were not able to make the athletes available (to authorities),” US Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky said.
Sandusky said that the US team would continue to cooperate with Brazilian police on the matter.
Lochte’s lawyer Jeff Ostrow told CNN that Lochte had returned to the United States and had fully cooperated with Brazilian authorities.
“He was not asked by the Brazilian authorities to remain in Brazil for further investigation,” Ostrow said.
“Had they asked, he would have stayed and assisted. They still have not reached out to ask for additional information.”