After grabbling on the judo mat to earn an Olympic bronze medal, Belgium’s Dirk van Tichelt headed down to Copacabana Beach to celebrate.
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BOC communications director Luc Rampaer said: ‘His training partner’s phone was stolen and as Dirk ran after the thief, he was punched in the face by someone else.
Van Tichelt was reportedly assaulted by a thief on the famous beach, and was struck in the face.
Although he did not need any additional medical attention, van Tichelt left the incident with a black eye.
The Olympian reported the incident to the police, who took him to the hospital for observation, though his injury wasn’t serious.
The Belgian Olympic Committee later confirmed the assault while also stating that Van Tichelt was released without any treatment from the hospital.
A bus carrying journalists and photographers was attacked by gunfire on Tuesday night, leaving two injured.
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But while there’s been an uptick in crime around the games, official statistics seem to show that Rio is generally getting more safe, not less. “It was to keep from hurting on either that I first said I’d been hit during training”.
