Ryan Lochte issued a statement on Friday where he apologized for his "behavior" last weekend, citing language barriers and being out late in a foreign country as contributing factors to the international incident.
Lochte said he is sorry for "for not being more careful and candid in how I described the events."
Read the full statement below:
Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said Friday he felt "pity and contempt" for the US Olympic swimmers involved in muddled reports of a robbery.
The mayor told journalists in central Rio that he accepted the apology issued by the US Olympic Committee the night before over the conduct of swimmers Ryan Lochte, James Feigen, Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz.
"I believe that all of us need to accept the apologies of the US Olympic Committee, the same way our Olympic Committee would have had to apologize if the assault had occurred. The apologies have been more than accepted," he said.
Police say at least one of the men vandalized a gas station and urinated on the premises outdoors as the four stopped there in the early hours of Sunday morning and handed over money to armed security guards to pay for the damage.
Lochte earlier said the men were robbed at gunpoint. He has not taken back that claim.
The statement posted on Facebook said that the decision was made in a court appearance to answer police accusations that Feigen and fellow swimmer Ryan Lochte had made false claims that they were robbed.
Feigen was among four US swimmers who Lochte said had been robbed at gunpoint by men posing as police officers at a gas station in Rio de Janeiro, a story that police maintain is false.