The French Canoeing team's Olympic gold victory was overshadowed when coach Guillaume Berge, 33, was arrested in Paris for urinating in public and attacking the police who reprimanded him, as reported by Ap.
The incident occurred around 3 a.m. on Tuesday. Berge was caught urinating against a wall in plain sight when the officers apprehended him. The coach tried to flee but, with his "imposing physique," as reported by Le Parisien, he dragged one of the officers to the ground, allegedly punching him in the face. Refusing to be arrested, he also struck the other two officers who came to assist their colleague, one in the head and the other in the lips.
The police had to repeatedly use a taser gun, in addition to physical force, to subdue the coach, who was eventually handcuffed and taken to the 11th district police station where he was placed under police custody for rebellion and intentional violence against the officers.
Currently, the Paris Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation to shed more light on this incident.
For now, the French Canoeing Federation has suspended Berge from his duties. However, according to reports, the detainee was not coaching the French teams at the Olympics but was organizing public service events in areas where canoeing and kayaking competitions are held in Vaires-sur-Marne, east of Paris, as reported by Ap.
"What we heard is unacceptable, and we suspended him from all his duties," said federation president Ludovic Royé to The Associated Press, emphasizing that Berge coached French teams up to last year's world championship but was not selected to coach for Paris 2024.