Claims and Counter Claims Rock Spartan Race
Rob Howard / 26.12.2013
News has been spreading around social media over the Christmas period alleging that Richard Lee, a founder of Spartan Race, one of the highest profile Obstacle Course Races, has been falsely claiming to have been a former serving Royal Marine.
Part of the promotion of OCR races is the macho credo of ‘are you tough enough’ and having a former Royal Marine at the helm has been regularly mentioned as part of the race PR for a series named and promoted using the fighting ethos of the Spartan warrior legend. Obstacle Course Racing has seen amazing success and growth, and is now a multi-million pound business, but with the big bucks and the high profile comes much greater scrutiny, and for Richard Lee that has posed some difficult questions this Christmas.
The investigation into his claims was first made on the Facebook page ‘The Walter Mitty Hunters Club HQ’, which looks into bogus claims of military service. In their words they ‘outed’ Lee’s story on December 15th and it’s since been taken up online and in some newspapers, and given the nature of the story it will surely make the national press in the UK and further afield soon.
The page claims to have had a tip-off saying; “I have a local hero that I know is a blagger. He keeps making claims of being a royal marine but in short, he never made the grade and was booted out. He is using fake military history to build a stronger business acumen to base his business on. He is insulting those who worked blood sweat and tears to become a Royal Marine ...”
Their subsequent investigation and claims are on this page, and followed a Facebook interchange in which they asked Lee to state when he won his Green Beret, and he replied that their claims were based on a malicious tip-off, false information and were untrue. The Walter Mitty Hunters Club didn’t back down despite threats of legal action, and that is how things stand at present.
It’s an uncomfortable stand-off over the holiday period when offices are closed and the latest in a series of P.R. setbacks to the thriving OCR business including a drowning death at a Tough Guy race and a number of badly mismanaged events hitting the headlines around the world.
Given it’s a matter of fact the claim should be quickly proven or dismissed, but it will cast an even harsher spotlight on the OCR business and the many military connections and claims associated with OCR will surely be looked at closely.
[They are not hard to find. Tough Mudder founder Will Dean is described on that event website as a former British Counter Terrorist Officer, but his Linkedin Profile is a little more specific listing his employment as a ‘Counter Terrorism Finance Desk Officer at Foreign & Commonwealth Office’.]
Postscript; Spartan Race subsequently issued the following statement on the their website. It acknowledges that Lee didn't complete training and become a Royal Marine and apologises for inaccuracies in press statements.
So the facts are established - the effect on Spartan Race remains to be seen. There are lots of 'we couldn't care less', and 'it's not a big deal' comments on their Facebook page - but a large number of comments on the Walter Mitty Hunters Club page saying their comments are being deleted and they are being blocked from the Spartan page.
Post Postscript; With Spartan Race busy deleting any Facebook criticism and blocking anyone posting negative comments it was inevitable a page would be set up to post it all to. Here it is; https://www.facebook.com/richardleestanddown
