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Dash3
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Judo Olympic medalist "beaten up" in Rio

https://www.jiujitsutimes.com/2016-olympic-judo-bronze-medalist-beat-rio/

This article has a very clear bias, but I don't believe that lessens the validity of some of its points. Without more details of the assault, it would be difficult to proclaim this was a failure of the young man's technique, but at the least we can say it was a failure of the young man's self-defense training in not avoiding places and activities where the potential for conflict is high. But, as the article argues, this young man may never have trained in self-defense, only competition. 

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

I’m not sure the article tells us that much, and it is certainly viewing the entire incident from a martial arts vs self-defence perspective.

LATER NOTE: It seems Jiu-jitsu Times have realised they were supplied with false information and have amended the article; it no longer has a discussion about sport vs self-defence as the main trust of the piece.

Dash3 wrote:
Without more details of the assault, it would be difficult to proclaim this was a failure of the young man's technique, but at the least we can say it was a failure of the young man's self-defence training in not avoiding places and activities where the potential for conflict is high.

Other non-martial sources have also reported the incident:

http://qz.com/755610/a-belgian-won-the-bronze-medal-for-judo-went-out-to-celebrate-and-got-punched-in-the-face/

It paints a very different version of events:

e wrote:
The Olympics are a time of great highs and lows, sometimes for the same person.

On Aug. 8, Dirk Van Tichelt won bronze for Belgium in men’s judo at the Rio Olympics. That evening, he went out to celebrate his victory on Copacabana beach, and got a little more excitement than he may have anticipated. When Van Tichelt appeared the following day at a press event, he had a noticeable black eye.

Van Tichelt initially said he’d been hit during training, but after the rumor mill got going, he reportedly decided to set the record straight (link in French). In a televised interview, Van Tichelt said he was walking on the beach with his sparring partner, Matthias Casse, when Casse realized the woman he was speaking with had stolen his phone. She ran to a hotel with a guarded entrance, and when they tried to follow her in, security stopped them. According to Van Tichelt, he was trying to break up the scuffle that ensued, when he received a blow to the face by a security guard.

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 has since released a brief statement confirming the incident, according to the AP.

A few of Rio’s Olympic visitors have had brushes with crime: An Australian Paralympian was reportedly robbed at gunpoint in June. This week, a bus carrying a group of journalists was attacked and its windows shattered, although no one was seriously injured.

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.

“The games are magic and Rio is a magnificent city,” Van Tichelt said in the interview. “It was to keep from hurting on either that I first said I’d been hit during training.”

http://qz.com/755610/a-belgian-won-the-bronze-medal-for-judo-went-out-to...

Dirk Van Tichelt was also interviewed on TV:

Dirk Van Tichelt (translated from French) wrote:
I was walking on the beach Copacabana with my sparring partner (Matthias Casse) who was talking with a girl. He suddenly realized she had stolen his mobile phone and was pursued. But she took refuge in a hotel whose entrance was guarded. My friend tried to force past the security guard and a fight broke out. Me, I tried to separate everybody and that's how I got a blow from the security guard. I then went to the police to file a complaint."

So it seems he was trying to break up a fight. In such chaotic circumstances, no one’s face is “punch proof” so that fact he took a shot cannot really tell us much about how his training “fell short”. It’s also important to note that he was not fighting with a criminal here (as had been originally suggested), but trying to intervene in a situation between a good friend who has just been robbed (no doubt highly agitated) and a security guard who was doing his job.

According to the story, he got hit with a stray pouch from someone else’s exchange. Had Dirk Van Tichelt threw the security guard to the ground, then that that guard could have argued he was only doing his job when he was assaulted and injured by a Judo Olympian and his sparring partner.

It seems he was not mugged by two people, but was trying to break up a fight. The (original) Juijutsu Times piece is working on false information.

With 20 / 20 hindsight, Matthias Casse politely asking the security guard to call the police because there was a thief on their property would have been a good idea. Failing that, ask another member of staff, a passer-by or worst case scenario leave and call later himself. As it was it all got out of hand.

It seems Dirk Van Tichelt tried to break it all up and got hit by a stray punch in the process. The (original) Jiujitsu Times piece is therefore making conclusions from false information.

All the best,

Iain

Dash3
Dash3's picture

I suppose that's a better story, at least for the gentleman involved. I knew the JiuJitsu Times article had an angle, but shame on them for making stuff up to fit their agenda, and shame on me for buying it...

Iain Abernethy
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Dash3 wrote:
I suppose that's a better story, at least for the gentleman involved. I knew the JiuJitsu Times article had an angle, but shame on them for making stuff up to fit their agenda, and shame on me for buying it...

I don’t think they made anything up. There was some legitimate confusion around what happened and conflicting reports originally. So while the facts were wrong, there was no attempt to misrepresent.

All the best,

Iain

Dash3
Dash3's picture

Iain Abernethy wrote:

I don’t think they made anything up. There was some legitimate confusion around what happened and conflicting reports originally. So while the facts were wrong, there was no attempt to misrepresent.

Then you are kinder than I (and probably most people are). With the vast differences between the JJT story and what actually happened and the bent of the article, I am not inclined to be so charitable in my opinion of their journalistic integrity.

Unfortunately, it does all detract from their point regarding competition and self-defense and would have been a lovely anecdote for that discussion - if it had actually happened that way...