Four U.S. swimming Olympians were robbed at gunpoint on Sunday in Brazil.
The United States Olympic Committee confirmed that the four swimmers, Ryan Lochte, Gunnar Bentz, Jimmy Feigen, and Jack Conger, were all completely safe and cooperating with authorities investigating the incident.
The first reports on the incident began after Lochte, a highly decorated Olympian, who won a gold medal in the 2016 Rio games, texted his mother to inform her of the robbery.
After reports of the texts surfaced, both Lochte and an IOC spokesperson refuted the reports saying the incident never occurred.
The mother of Lochte, a Brazilian swimmer, and finally, Ryan Lochte himself, eventually confirmed the robbery.
According to reports, the swimmers were leaving the French hospitality venue on the way back to the Olympic Village when the robbery occurred.
“We got pulled over, in the taxi, and these guys came out with a badge, a police badge, no lights, no nothing just a police badge and they pulled us over,” recollected Lochte in an interview with NBC Sports. “They pulled out their guns, they told the other swimmers to get down on the ground — they got down on the ground. I refused, I was like we didn’t do anything wrong, so — I’m not getting down on the ground. And then the guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, “Get down,” and I put my hands up, I was like ‘whatever.’ He took our money, he took my wallet — he left my cell phone, he left my credentials.”