TJ Walker breaks down Ryan Lochte's fabricated robbery story from the Rio Olympics. Lochte faces legal trouble for filing a false police report and risks losing sponsorships. Walker says a public apology and restitution are his only path to rebuilding credibility.
Chapters
In breaking news, U.S. olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte is in a heap of trouble. Now it is Thursday afternoon, August 18th. The Olympics are still going on, and there's controversy swirling around Ryan Lochte. He initially said that he was robbed at gunpoint a couple of days ago in Rio. Since then, his story has constantly changed. The story of three other swimmers who were with him has been changing. And now it certainly looks like the story was fabricated, that in fact, he had had way too much to drink. He and his buddies, they kicked down a door at a gas station, got in some trouble, had to make a payment, and sort of covered up their mishap by claiming that they were robbed at gunpoint. Well, here's why this is a problem. You can say, boys will be boys. No one was really hurt. It's not that simple. First is the issue of filing a false police report, which police everywhere, government authorities everywhere take very seriously. Next, it's the issue of just massive, massive amounts of negative publicity. I mean, the whole reason that Brazil spent billions of dollars creating all these venues and all they had to do to get ready for the Olympics was to get good publicity to make people want to come to their country. And then when someone has won medals and what you would think be the toast of the town is robbed or allegedly robbed at gunpoint, kind of destroys all the goodwill and value spent on the Olympics. This, I think, is to me, one of the best sound bites of the week that sums up the situation. This is from Brian Winter, who's the vice president for policy at the Americas Society and Council of of the Americas. He said, this incident has caused so much damage to Rio's brand abroad that I think Brazilians deserve a clear, consistent account of what happened. He continues, the entire episode has tapped into one of Brazilian's 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. A powerful sound bite, but that is really what sums up this entire issue. Can some gringo, the derogatory term for the white man up north, come down? Why get away with it? So that's why this issue is not going away. That simply. Here's what's at stake. Ryan Lochte, as one of the most successful Olympic athletes of all times, is someone who has won. At this point, it has to be north of $10 million in sponsorship revenues. He's still a young man. He's in a position to make tens and tens, if not north of $100 million. Throughout his career as a spokesperson as someone whose face can be seen in TV ads. So if his credibility is destroyed, if he becomes a punching bag, a punchline, and someone who is seen as just an automatic liar, well, guess what? All of those sponsorships completely evaporate overnight. Now, this has happened to other celebrities in the past. Those of you who are talk show aficionados may well remember Morton Downey Jr. The now deceased, controversial shock jock talk show host who in the waning stages of his own talk show hosting career, claimed that he was kidnapped in an airport bathroom, had his head shaved, and a Nazi swastika was carved in his face. Now, that was since debunked when you looked at it and you realized it was like someone drawing a swastika looking in a mirror, not what someone would have done if they'd actually pinned him down. Similar things have happened to talk show host and guardian angel Curtis Lewis, where he claimed that he was shot by mobsters and wasn't later admitted that he made it up to the point where people didn't even believe him when he actually was stabbed by criminals. Once your credibility is shut, it's very hard to get it back. So Ryan Lochte has additional problems in that the Olympic code of ethics states, you cannot commit fraud. This is a fraud. So even though it certainly looks like he's retiring, it would be an ignominious ending to his career to be officially booted from the Olympics. My advice, if Ryan Lochte is not my client, but if you were to call me today, I would say, look, come clean, say exactly what happened, call yourself an idiot, beg for an apology, beg the people of Brazil for forgiveness, and make some large, significant contribution, a million dollars north, something like that, as a goodwill gesture, whether it's beach cleanup or something to help the people of Brazil to show you care about it. Because as it is right now, Lochte has gotten so much more good publicity until this incident. So many more sponsorship deals that would have come to him from the gold medal. Not the gold medals, but the various medals from these Olympics and others. It just doesn't strike people as fair that he can besmirch a country that puts so much into it while he gets richer. And there's going to be. I'm not always a believer in karma, but there is going to be some karmic justice here if he doesn't make amends. Because as of right now, nothing he says is adding up at this point. I'm not going to repeat every bit of allegations because who knows what's swirling around. But even if you take into account gossip and people who are just going after Lochte, doesn't negate the fact that his story has changed numerous times and his credibility is shut. If he ever wants to regain his status as someone who's a viable spokesperson for major banks, which he has been in the past, and as someone who can be a reality TV star and a celebrity that isn't just at the D and C ranks, he's got to come clean quickly, beg forgiveness and make amends. Otherwise, he's going to spend the rest of his life as nothing but a laughingstock.
