Brazilian police stopped two U.S. Olympic swimmers from boarding a flight home on Wednesday to question them about how they and two team mates were robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro at the weekend, after a judge raised doubts over their accounts.
There was confusion over the whereabouts of a third swimmer, James Feigen. One police source said he too had been stopped at the airport, but another police source later said officers had gone there to pick up Feigen, who had a reservation on the same flight, but did not find him.
Federal police also want to question U.S. gold medalist swimmer Ryan Lochte, one of swimming’s most decorated Olympians, but he had already flown home to the United States on Monday, a police spokesman said.
The four swimmers have said they were robbed by gunmen while returning to the Athletes’ Village in a taxi in the early hours of Sunday after a party – an incident that stoked fears over the safety of competitors and visitors attending South America’s first Olympic Games. – READ MORE
