Team USA Swimmers Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were detained by Brazilian officers just as they were about to board a plane bound for the United States on Wednesday. The two, along with team mate James Feigen, will be further questioned on the robbery case involving them and Ryan Lochte.
According to The Guardian, United States Olympic Committee spokesperson Patrick Sandusky added that Conger and Bentz were released early on Thursday after being detained. However, with the investigations still being carried on and the hopes of discussing this further on Thursday, the two swimmers will be not allowed to leave Brazil for the time being.
Yahoo Sports also stated that the local Brazilian judge ordered Lochte and Feigan to surrender their passports as part of the procedure in the investigations. This order was due to the lack of evidence from the four swimmers from the alleged attack.
Earlier on Sunday, Lochte and his teammates were allegedly robbed at gunpoint around the early hours of morning by assailants dressed as policemen. On their way on a cab to a party at the French hospitality house, the swimmers were stopped by the men posing as police, and Lochte claimed he had a gun pointed at his head and were forced down on the ground to be robbed.
The alleged incident caused a firestorm, with many claiming it to be unusually brutal even for a city where similar crimes happen. But Brazilian authorities would still further investigate and question Lochte's account of the incident in the past two days.
On Wednesday, it would appear that Lochte altered the story a bit. Based on the interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, he was still held at gun point but not on his head. The swimmer insisted, though, that he was robbed and did not fabricate the story.
Lochte's attorney, Jeff Ostrow, mentioned that the swimmers did their best to cooperate in the interviews and would have stayed in Brazil and assisted in the case. Lochte, however, mentioned that they did not mention the robbery to the USOC authority for fear of getting into trouble.
