Ryan Lochte Apologizes for Incident at 2016 Rio Olympics

American swimmer Ryan Lochte posted an apology Friday morning for his role in the highly publicized incident at a local gas station during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro last weekend.

Lochte admitted in the social media post he should have been more "careful and candid" when describing the situation to the media. He waited to make his latest statement until his teammates had a chance to speak with Brazilian authorities and now hopes everybody can move forward:

Anton Troianovski of the Wall Street Journal provided a response from a Rio 2016 spokesperson:

Christine Brennan of USA Today added further context about the apology:

The 32-year-old six-time Olympic gold medalist originally told Today's Billy Bush that he and three other swimmers were robbed at gunpoint by individuals posing as police officers, per Hasani Gittens of NBC News. He also claimed one of the assailants pointed a gun directly at his forehead.

Questions were raised about the validity of the claim after Matt Roper, Ruth Styles, Ben Ashford and Chris Spargo of the Daily Mail reported investigators stated X-ray images from the athletes' return to the Olympic Village showed the items they claimed were stolen.

Lochte returned to the United States before a Brazilian judge ordered the swimmers' passports to be seized while the situation was investigated, according to CBS News.

Another video emerged Thursday showing the swimmers' stop at the gas station where they allegedly vandalized a bathroom, as Matt Norlander of CBS Sports noted. TMZ Sports talked to sources close to the swimmer, who stated the surveillance footage was edited at key points.

Meanwhile, teammates Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz returned home early Friday after being pulled off a previous flight home by Brazilian authorities, per Cassandra Garrison and Caroline Stauffer of Reuters. They provided revised testimony confirming they were not robbed.

Joshua Robinson and Patricia Kowsmann of the Wall Street Journal reported the fourth swimmer involved, James Feigen, reached an agreement with authorities to make a $10,800 charitable donation to prevent further punishment for falsely reporting a crime.

Now, Lochte is calling for an end to what became an endless stretch of drama over the past couple of days, which eventually earned it the label "LochteGate."