RIO DE JANEIRO — The American swimmers who claimed they were assaulted at gunpoint over the weekend by assailants posing as police officers fabricated their account of the episode, according to Brazilian investigators.
After watching video and hearing testimony from witnesses, the Brazilian police have determined the incident involved damage to a bathroom door at a gas station where the swimmers stopped in the early hours Sunday on the way back to the athletes’ village from a party.
“Unfortunately, the swimmers told one lie after another,” a Brazilian police official who had reviewed the video images said. He declined to be identified because the investigation is continuing. “We’ve been able to determine that there was no armed assault.”
The case made global headlines after the Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte claimed that men posing as police officers had pulled over their taxi and that an assailant had put a cocked gun to his forehead before taking his money. He later altered his account, saying the taxi stopped at a gas station so they could use the bathroom.
