One of the US swimmers caught up in a scandal after claims the group had been robbed in Rio has said Ryan Lochte pulled down a poster and yelled at armed guards.

In his account of last week's incident, Gunnar Bentz said the guards confronted them after they had urinated behind bushes near a petrol station.

Bentz's claims contradict those of multiple gold-winner Lochte who had said he and his teammates were pulled over by gunmen posing as police and then robbed at gunpoint.

Image: Jack Conger (right) and Gunnar Bentz (left) were questioned by Rio police

Bentz said he, Lochte, Jack Conger and Jimmy Feigen left an event around 6am last Sunday and while on their way back in a taxi to the Olympic village they stopped to use the toilet.

He said: "There was no restroom inside, so we foolishly relieved ourselves on the backside of the building behind some bushes.


"There was a locked door out back and I did not witness anyone breaking it open.

Image: Lochte came away with a single gold in Rio - in the relay

"I am unsure why, but while we were in that area, Ryan pulled to the ground a framed metal advertisement that was loosely anchored to the brick wall.

"I then suggested to everyone that we needed to leave the area and we returned to the taxi."

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He said armed security guards then challenged the swimmers and drew their guns, telling them to sit down but Lochte stood up yelled at them - in what Bentz called a "heated verbal exchange".

Bentz said he and Conger had tried to restrain Lochte, and also said he and Feigen had paid the guards about $50 "in order to leave".

He expressed "sincere" apologies and insisted he was never a suspect in the case.

"Brazilian law enforcement officials saw me only as a witness. I never made a false statement to anyone at any time."

The scandal has angered Brazilians who jeered Bentz and Conger, calling them "liars" and "fakes" as they made their way out of the country on Thursday.

Lochte, who left for the US the day after the incident, has also apologised.

He said he should have been "more careful and candid" in his account but it was "traumatic" to have a man point a gun at him in a foreign country.

The International Olympic Committee is to start a disciplinary inquiry into the four swimmers.