The Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Ryan Lochte has reportedly been held up at gunpoint on his way to a party in Rio.
Lochte is now thought to be safe and unhurt at the Team USA base.
He is reported to have phoned his mother Ileana after the incident, and she is said to have described the incident as “terrifying”.
The gunpoint incident reportedly occurred after Lochte, 32, and three of his American teammates were invited to a party by the Brazilian swimmer Thiago Pereira.
The incident, first reported by Fox News, was denied by the International Olympic Committee, whose spokesman Mark Adams told reporters in Rio: “The story is absolutely not true.”
But Ileana Lochte repeated her claims of a hold-up to the American newspaper USA Today, saying that her son was with at least one US teammate in a cab heading to meet up with Brazilian swimmer Thiago Pereira when the cab stopped to get petrol.
She said the group was confronted by people armed with guns and knives.
“They just took their wallets and basically that was it,” Ms Lochte told USA Today. “I think they’re all shaken up.”
She added that her son told her about the hold-up by text message soon after it happened. Ms Lochte, who is in Rio, said she was on her way to see her son.
“I’ll be OK when I see him,” she said.
The mother’s account, however, also seemed to be at least partially disputed by the swimmer’s personal coach, who texted USA that the Lochte “was not held up”. David Marsh added that he was trying to establish exactly what had happened.
Lochte won gold on Wednesday in the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay, bringing his total career Olympic medal tally to 12, making him the second most decorated male Olympic swimmer ever, behind only his teammate and fellow relay winner Michael Phelps. He tweeted a series of pictures of him and his teammates posing with their medals, calling it “an amazing night” and saying: “Four Olympics straight we’ve won this relay. So humbled to be part of this movement.”
Lochte won his first Olympic gold medal in the 4×200 men’s freestyle relay in Athens in 2004. He also won a silver medal at the Athens games after coming second in the individual 200m relay.
He won gold with a world record time in the 200m backstroke at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where he also picked up another relay gold.
At London 2012 he won his third 4×200 freestyle relay gold, and won another gold in the 400m individual medley. His total Olympic medal tally now stands at six golds, three silvers and three bronzes.
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Feature image courtesy independent
