Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte told a harrowing story of being pulled over in Rio de Janeiro by men dressed as policemen who held a gun to his head, and robbed him of $400.

“The guy pulled out his gun, he cocked it, put it to my forehead and he said, ‘Get down,’ and I put my hands up, I was like ‘whatever,’” Lochte said while recounting the seemingly-unflinching-in-the-face of danger to NBC’s Billy Bush.

Something wasn’t quite right, however. The robbers left the group with their cell phones and watches, which would mean they were really inept bad guys. And Lochte’s claim was that they had been forced off the road by the police vehicle, but another swimmer’s account said they had pulled into the gas station when the gun wielding marauders went after them. Too, Lochte said there was one robber, while his teammates said there were several.

Brazilian police required the swimmers to remain in the country pending an investigation, but Lochte had already fled.

Lochte’s attorney Jeff Ostrow discounted the inconsistencies in the stories, arguing that the four swimmers’ accounts “are 95 percent consistent.”

“When you have one of America’s athletes who comes out and said something happened to him that happens to people there every single day, that doesn’t look good for a country trying to have a successful Olympics,” said Ostrow.

“He’s the victim. He didn’t commit a crime. Same with the other guys. The story needs to be about 20-something-year-old kids pulled off an airplane, they’re being detained to testify to police? C’mon.”

However, the legendary Renzo Gracie looked into it, and well before the latest revelations, said it wasn’t true. Gracie said a source who wishes to remain anonymous sent him a text demonstrating that the winning team’s narrative was false.

I received the text from someone who asked not to be identified, but working within the Olympic Village,” said Gracie to the Brazilian language Vera, as translated by BJJEE. “From it, I called some acquaintances who worked in the security of the site. When questioned about the veracity of the assault, they showed fear and would not confirm or deny what had happened to the swimmers.

I remembered that when we entered the Olympic Village, we had to leave all our belongings aside and pass through detectors – and this whole process was filmed. That would be the chance to prove that they could be fabricating the assault.”

Gracie was right, and there was video of Lochte and teammates Jimmy Feigen, Gunnar Bentz, and Jack Conger returning to the Olympic village at 7 a.m. on Sunday. It does not appear to show men who were just robbed at gunpoint. Truth is, it doesn’t really show men.

This video brings another clue that the text I received is true,” said Gracie. “They are smiling and apparently with all belongings. I do not believe this to be consistent with someone who had just been robbed, even in a country unfamiliar.”

Lochte fled the country, but his remaining teammates have confirmed that the initial story was a lie.

The only truth they told was that they were drunk.

Brazilian media giant O Globo reports that the owner of a Barra da Tijuca gas station, who wishes not to be named, says the athletes had thrown stones at his business, and torn one of its signs, before publicly urinating in the street.

“They stopped next to the gas station, and urinated outside right next to the gas station,” said the anonymous owner. “We even have images of one of the athlete’s butts, as he is pulling up his pants.”

The New York Times put together an emerging description of the events. Brazilian authorities say the taxi carrying the swimmers stopped at a Shell gas station about 6 a.m., shortly after the men exited a party at Club France, an Olympic hospitality house established in the upscale Lagoa district.

At the gas station, on the route to the athletes’ village, the swimmers went to the bathroom. In the process, according to the account by investigators, damage was done to the bathroom door, and a discussion ensued with the manager and a security guard.

Someone at the gas station called the police, but by the time a police car arrived at the scene, the swimmers were gone. Witnesses, including a person who offered to translate for the swimmers, said that they paid money to the manager before leaving.

“This incident has caused so much damage to Rio’s brand abroad that I think Brazilians deserve a clear, consistent account of what happened, said Brian Winter, vice president for policy at Americas Society and Council of the Americas.

The entire episode, Winter said, “has tapped into one of Brazilians’ biggest pet peeves – gringos who treat their country like a third-rate spring break destination where you can lie to the cops and get away with it.”

However, Rio 2016 chief spokesman Mario Andrada attempted to brush off the incident.

“Let’s give these kids a break,” said Andrada, at a press briefing, who had previously issued a full apology for the supposed robbery at gunpoint. “I do not regret having apologized. I do not expect no apologies from him or from the other athletes are needed. We need to understand these kids were trying to have fun.”

Gracie disagrees.

“If they really forged the false report, they must be punished,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lochte is back in the U.S. with Playboy model girlfriend Kayla Rae Reid.