RIO DE JANEIRO — The three American swimmers still in Brazil are cooperating with authorities and plan to meet with them Thursday, the U.S. Olympic Committee said.
Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger are in the process of scheduling a time to meet with authorities, USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said. A Brazilian judge ordered Feigen and Ryan Lochte not to leave the country, writing in her filing Wednesday that there were inconsistencies in the testimony of the two swimmers, who said they were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday morning after a late night out. Lochte is home in the United States.
Bentz and Conger were not named in the ruling, but authorities pulled them off a flight at the Rio airport as they tried to leave the country Wednesday night.
"All are represented by counsel and being appropriately supported by the USOC and the U.S. Consulate in Rio," Sandusky said.
Judge Keyla Blank wrote in her filing that there were questions about a gap between when the swimmers said they left France House and arrived at the athletes' village. The swimmers said they departed France House at about 4 a.m., while a surveillance video showed they checked back in to the athletes village at 6:56 a.m., the judge wrote. Such a trip during early morning hours would take 30 to 40 minutes. She also indicated that images from France House indicate a different time of departure than the one the men allege.
She said they did not appear to be physically or psychologically shaken by the alleged crime. "They arrived with their psychological and physical integrity unshaken," she wrote, also noting that the swimmers appeared to be joking with each other and did not appear to be upset. She watched surveillance video of the swimmers arriving at the athletes village.
The judge wrote that she ordered the two swimmers’ passports seized and that both men remain in Brazil because investigators need more time to determine whether they are guilty of filing a false police report.
Lochte did not deviate from the narrative of his story, but he did change significant details, according to a NBC News report on Wednesday night.
The swimmer told Matt Lauer they were robbed at a gas station. But on Sunday the swimmers said they were robbed when their taxi was "stopped by individuals posing as armed police officers who demanded the athletes’ money and other personal belongings," according to a USOC statement.
