Ryan Lochte Admits His "Immature Behavior" Caused Rio Robbery Scandal: "I'm Taking Full Responsibility"

Team USA Swimmer sheds more light onto what happened during the games with Matt Lauer

By Mike Vulpo Aug 20, 2016 11:06 PMTags

Ryan Lochte continues to express his regret for the role he played in the now infamous Rio robbery scandal.

The Team USA swimmer sat down with NBC's Matt Lauer for his first television interview since his initial robbery claim was proven false to shed even more light on what happened.

"The first version of the story you told Ryan was much more about the mean streets of Rio," Matt explained to the gold medalist. "And the version we're hearing now is much more about a negotiated settlement to cover up some dumb behavior."

Without disagreeing, Ryan immediately began to express his remorse.

"And that's why I'm taking full responsibility for it because I overexaggerated that story and if I never did that, we wouldn't be in this mess," he shared. "Those guys would never be in Rio. None of this would have happened. It was my immature behavior."

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As to why he embellished the story in the first place, Ryan assured viewers that he felt threatened by the situation and just wanted to leave the area.

"We just wanted to get out of there. We were held. There was a gun pointed in our direction. We were all frightened," he explained. "We wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible and the only way we knew is by this guy saying you have to give them money so we gave him money and we got out."

The television interview comes just one day after Ryan apologized on social media and admitted to making mistakes.

"I want to apologize for my behavior last weekend—for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events of that early morning and for my role in taking the focus away from the many athletes fulfilling their dreams of participating in the Olympics," he said in a statement shared on social media Friday morning.

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Ryan Turgeon / Splash News

As for why he hadn't spoken publicly sooner, Ryan said he wanted to make sure his teammates would be arriving home safely.  

"It's traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country—with a language barrier—and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave, but regardless of the behavior of anyone else that night, I should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself and for that am sorry to my teammates, my fans, my fellow competitors, my sponsors and the hosts of this great event," he continued. "I am very proud to represent my country in Olympic competition and this was a situation that could and should have been avoided. I accept responsibility for my role in this happening and have learned from valuable lessons."

On Saturday evening, photographers spotted Ryan and rumored girlfriend Kayla Rae Reid arriving back home from the highly publicized TV interview. 

Watch more of Matt's exclusive interview with Ryan this Monday morning on Today.

(E! and NBC are part of the NBCUniversal family) 

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