Of all the places in the world to get drunk and act like a fool, don’t choose Rio de Janeiro – too many people know BJJ. This is true even if you are an Olympic bronze medalist in Judo.
There is a precedent.
Way back in 1995 at World Combat Championship 1, Dutch Olympic bronze medalist in Judo Ben Spijkers thought it would be funny to prank call Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Renzo Gracie all night before their fight. That ended up with Gracie stepping on his neck (see bottom).
Unfortunately, Dirk Van Tichelt, 32, didn’t get the memo.
The Belgian won a bronze medal in Judo in the 73kg division and was out celebrating into the early morning hours, when a woman snatched his friend’s cell phone and ran off. Van Tichelt raced off in pursuit, and in his inebriated state, thought she saw her go through the locked door of a Best Western Hotel in Copacabana.
The Judoka broke through the door, and a hotel receptionist tried to calm him. Bad news, Van Tichelt couldn’t be calmed. Good news, the receptionist was a BJJ expert.
“There were a group of people making a lot of noise down the road from the hotel,” said an unnamed member of hotel staff to Janet Tappin Coelho for the Daily Mail. “Then all of a sudden one of them, who turned out to be the judo player, started running after a woman. He came belting down the road chasing after her.
“The woman tried to get into the hotel but the doors were locked. The athlete didn’t catch the woman, but wrongly thought that she had entered our hotel. But our doors were already locked, so she couldn’t have come in. Even so, he broke the lock on the door and burst in making a lot of noise and making a lot of accusations.”
The hotel employee said that the receptionist tried to calm the Judoka down but the Belgian “was very aggressive accusing the hotel of the woman.”
“He thought that the woman was staying in the hotel and demanded the receptionist should give him her room number so she could return the phone. This was all totally untrue. Unfortunately, the Belgian athlete smelled of alcohol and looked very drunk.
“My colleague tried to get the man out of the hotel and this turned into a fight. They exchanged quite a few punches. As it happens the receptionist also practices Jiu-Jitsu so they were equally matched.”
The fight spilled out onto the street in front of the hotel. When police arrived, both men were arrested, and Van Tichelt taken to the hospital for a check up. Both men have since been released, and neither was seriously hurt.
Images taken the next day show Van Tichelt with a black eye. The Judoka claimed he suffered the eye injury during the competition, but no such injury shows in a photo taken on the medal stand.
Before:
After:
Belgium’s Olympic communications director Luc Rampaer offered a statement.
“The mobile phone of Dirk’s training partner had just been stolen and he ran to try to catch the thief and ended up being hit in the face by another person,” he said. “The police were nearby so he made a formal complaint and then was seen by a doctor at the hospital as a precaution, although there was nothing serious.”
Police chief Deoclécio de Assis Filho confirmed the arrest of the Judoka.
“The athlete attempted to throw a punch at the employee and the employee retaliated,” said the chief. “The athlete has not expressed any interest in continuing with the procedure.”
The incident had been registered as personal injury case, thus whether there was a crime depends on whether either party decides to press charges. However, Filho added that the case had been referred to the special criminal court and the matter was now with the judiciary.
Brazilian media giant Globo spoke with Van Tichelt, who conceded he had been drinking and celebrating until dawn.
“It was a very good party,” said Van Tichelt, via Google translate. “First I met my parents in Ipanema, then we went to Copacabana. There were many Caipirinhas. When this problem happened, it was early. We are in Brazil, the parties are great.”
Globo reports the Judoka still smelled of alcohol.
A history of Olympic bronze medalists in Judo playing the fool vs. BJJ experts, round 1:
The Caipirinha
The Caipirinha is Brazil’s national cocktail, made with cachaça, sugar and lime. Cachaça is a distilled spirit made from sugarcane juice; it is Brazil’s most common distilled alcoholic beverage.
They are delicious, but as is obvious, need to be drunk with some care.
To make a Caipirinha cut half a lime cut into 4 wedges and mash together with 2 teaspoons of brown sugar in an Old Fashioned glass. Fill the glass with crushed ice, and add 1 2/3 oz Cachaça.
Then enjoy responsibly.
