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Olympic Games 2016

Brazil arrests US swimmers and IOC official

Usain Bolt may be on track toward a new gold at this Tursday Rio Games but his efforts were overshadowed by the arrest of two US swimmers and a top Olympic Committee official late Wednesday night.

US Olympic swimmers Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger walk to the airport police station office at Rio's international airport in this still frame taken from video on 17 August 2016.
US Olympic swimmers Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger walk to the airport police station office at Rio's international airport in this still frame taken from video on 17 August 2016. GLOBO TV/via REUTERS TV
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US swimmers Jack Conger and Gunnar Bentz were taken off a flight leaving Rio de Janeiro by authorities investigating doubts over their claim of having been mugged.

That came hours after top European Olympic official Patrick Hickey was arrested in an investigation into black market Olympic ticket sales.

Conger and Bentz, along with star US swimmer Ryan Lochte and squad member James Feigen, said they were held up at gunpoint in the early hours of Sunday.

However, Brazilian judge Keyla Blank ordered the passports of all four to be seized to prevent them leaving the country.

Lochte had already gone home before Brazilian authorities ordered the swimmers be questioned.

They were released late at night "with the understanding that they would continue their discussions about the incident on Thursday," Sandusky said.

Lochte said they were held up by muggers posing as police as they left a party just after 4.00am. In interviews, claiming he had a hand gun put to his head and was forced to hand over his money and wallet.

However, the judge said the story was full of inconsistencies.

Hickey in hospital after being detained

Meanwhile, Patrick Hickey, an IOC executive member, head of the European Olympic Committees and the Irish national committee, spent Wednesday night in hospital after being detained at his luxury hotel, following a raid similar to the arrest of seven top Fifa officials at a Zurich hotel last year.

Accused of ticket scalping, ambush marketing and conspiracy after tickets were seized from another Irish businessman, Hickey has "temporarily" stood down from his posts.

Brazilian police have launched a widening investigation after seizing more than 1,000 premier tickets for Games events, including the opening ceremony.

Those arrests diverted attention from the sporting action as Usain Bolt reached the final of the 200m -- the second of his targeted three-gold-medal sweep of the Olympic sprint titles.

While Bolt ran the season's best 19.78 sec, his American arch-rival Justin Gatlin, 34, failed to reach the final. 

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