US offers apology as swimmers leave Brazil amid jeers

Two US Olympic swimmers flew home from Brazil on Thursday after a local crowd jeered them, calling them "liars" and "fakes", and police accused them of fabricating a story about being robbed at gunpoint during the Rio Games.

Their departure marked what the US Olympic team hopes will be the closing stages of an incident that has embarrassed the host city, angered the police and government, unleashed a storm on social media and dominated news coverage of South America's first Olympics.

The US Olympic Committee issued an apology after the departure of Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger, who were among four US swimmers whose account of being stopped by gunmen posing as police early Sunday was disproved.