Maybe it’s all of the chemicals from his newly bleached hairdo, but something is definitely wrong with Ryan Lochte’s head lately. When Lochte made the decision to publicly lie multiple times to various media outlets, authorities, and adoring fans, he also made the decision to shed a bad light on the reputation of the United States Olympic Team. Recent statements and reports from police and witnesses all portray Lochte as the main perpetrator in the offense, and so I shall focus much of this article on his actions alone, and offer my opinions on how the entire incident could have been avoided.

When Ryan Lochte and his teammates made the decision to go out to a party and drink alcohol, they were not doing anything wrong. They deserved to celebrate after winning Olympic medals, and they were all legally of age to drink in Rio! However, their first mistake occurred when they continued to throw back drinks long after their BAC’s were already quite high. But, it happens to everyone sometimes, so maybe we can overlook that aspect of the situation.

After leaving the party, the rest of the night should have played out fairly simply: leave the party, get in the cab, go home, maybe eat something greasy and full of carbs, and then go to bed. But, as a newly released statement by swimmer Gunnar Bentz reveals, the swimmers unfortunately requested that their cab driver stop at a gas station that did not have a restroom inside. No big deal, right? Let’s just drive a bit further and find a gas station that has a bathroom!

Nope. Their intoxicated minds insisted that this was the gas station that they must use, and so as Bentz’s statement states, they “foolishly relieved [themselves] on the backside of the building behind some bushes.” I am not an expert in Brazil’s laws, but I am aware that this would be illegal in the United States, and therefore probably warranted being stopped by security officers. But first, Ryan Lochte had to add some fuel to the fire by tearing an advertisement off the back wall of the gas station.

Why? Multiple interviews, tweets, and decisions (did y'all know he had a reality show?!) over the years have not always portrayed Lochte as the most intelligent person, and I can assume that the addition of alcohol does not aid his mental capacity.

The details of the rest of the night differ in all of the various reports. Regardless of what truly happened, Ryan Lochte chose to publicly lie multiple times in order to not be held accountable for his actions. But, as it usually does, Karma came back around to bite him. If Lochte had never made that first phone call to his mother about the “robbery,” the real and fake stories probably never would have seen the light of day. Nobody would have had to know that the swimmers gave a gas station $30, and Lochte would have remained as simply a really good bleached-blonde swimmer! Moral of the story? Next time, just stay in the cab until you get home.