NOT SO FAST

U.S. Swimmers Held for Rio Robbery Claim

Brazilian judge seizes passports as police question their story.

Two U.S. Olympic swimmers who said they were robbed at gunpoint in Rio were pulled from their flight back to the U.S. on Wednesday by Brazilian authorities as police investigate their story. “We can confirm that Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were removed from their flight to the United States by Brazilian authorities,” a spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee said late Wednesday. Bentz and Conger had claimed to be with gold medalist Ryan Lochte on Sunday when the group was robbed by men posing as police officers. The incident was hugely embarrassing for authorities in Rio, but police there now have grown skeptical of the story after the swimmers seemed to change the details. A Brazilian judge on Wednesday issued an order to seize the passports of Lochte and the other swimmers involved to prevent them from leaving the country until police could check their claims. But Lochte had already left; James Feigen, another swimmer involved, remains in Brazil. The U.S. State Department said it had “ seen media reports that two U.S. citizen athletes were detained,” and was “ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance.” Meanwhile, a member of the British track and field team was reportedly robbed at gunpoint while out on the town in Rio on Tuesday. Details on the incident are scarce and the identity of the athlete has not been released, but British track and field officials are taking it seriously, having issued a warning to all its athletes to “avoid leaving the village after dark” in anything other than official Olympic transport.