Joshua Booth, a 21-year-old rower who rowed for Australia on Wednesday, was arrested early Thursday morning and held at a police department in Egham after he was reportedly involved in an incident where a store front was damaged. According to the BBC, officers discovered two broken windows at the front of a store in a Surrey town upon arriving at the scene and arrested Booth on suspicion of criminal intent. Shockingly, alcohol was involved.
The Australian men’s eight rowing team finished sixth in Wednesday’s final, so you can understand why Booth may have been upset. Unfortunately, there was more to it than just the broken windows and drunkenness. While at the police station, Booth reportedly fainted and hit his head. He had to be taken to a nearby hospital.
“One of our rowers, Josh Booth, from the men’s eight, has got himself in some trouble,” Australia’s Olympic Commission chef de mission Nick Green said at a press conference on Friday. “He was detained by the police last night for damage to a shop front.
“He was then taken to a police station. He fainted while he was there and hit his head at the police station and was taken to the hospital for precaution. He has to go back to the police station tomorrow where the police will investigate the matter and make some outcomes out of their investigation.”
And that, my friends, is the exact definition of adding insult to injury. Or is it adding injury to insult? Either way, this certainly can’t be the young rower’s proudest moment. Maybe this is why the Olympic athletes stick to crazy amounts of sex and flirting in the pool during practice. At least it keeps them out of trouble.
H/T The Big Lead
