The swimmer talks to Matt Lauer about the controversial gas station story, admitting he 'definitely had way too much to drink.'
- Aug 22, 2016
AceShowbiz - Ryan Lochte sat down with Matt Lauer in an NBC interview after apologizing for Rio robbery story. "I'm taking full responsibility for it," he said. "I over-exaggerated that story. If I'd never done that, we wouldn't be in this mess ... It was my immature behavior."
"It's how you want to make it look like," he added. "Whether you call it a robbery, whether you call it extortion, or us paying just for the damages, like, we don't know. All we know is that there was a gun pointed in our direction, and we were demanded to give money."
"We just wanted to get out of there," he went on. "There was a gun pointed in our direction. We were all frightened, and we wanted to get out of there as quick as possible. The only way we knew was this guy saying you have to give them money, so we gave them money and we got out."
When he was asked about the interview he did the following day after the incident, Lochte admitted he was "still intoxicated" from the night before because he "definitely had way too much to drink." He said, "I made a stupid mistake. I'm human. I'll definitely learn from this."
He also apologized to his teammates who were detained in Rio when he was already safe back in the States. "I let my team down," he said tearing up. "I wanted to be there. I don't want them to think that I left, and left them dry ... I wanted to be there. I wanted to help out any way I could. I just wanted to make sure they were home safe before I came out and talked."
The athlete apologized to the people of Brazil as well. "They put on a great games. The people of Rio or Brazil, the authorities, everyone there put on a great games. And my immature behavior tarnished that a little, and I don't want that," he said.
The U.S. Olympic Committee is not happy with Ryan Lochte, planning to take "further action." The swimmer said, "If they give me that chance I definitely know I can turn this around and become that role model for little kids. I don't want little kids to look at me for what I just did, for that one night. I don't want that."
