Olympic athlete and coach apologize after being busted for drunken joyride

At the most recent Winter Olympics hosted in South Korea, a Canadian athlete, his wife, and one of the Canadian National Team coaches were all detained for diving into an unoccupied vehicle while drunk and then taking it for a joy ride.

According to information released by Olympic officials, the three individuals had been drinking at the conclusion of the freestyle skiing competitions. Dave Duncan of Canada had completed his final run and was out enjoying himself with his wife and one of his coaches, with the drinking starting early in the day.

After walking out of one of the taverns set up in the Olympic village, they found a pink Hummer SUV idling by the entrance. Deciding it would be fun to slide behind the wheel of this strange vehicle and take it for a quick cruise around the Olympic village, that’s exactly what happened.

It didn’t take long for Olympic village police officials to catch Duncan and his party, and when he was pulled over and found to have “stolen” the vehicle, they decided to give him a field sobriety test. The Canadian coach was the actual driver behind the wheel of the vehicle. It was found that the driver had a blood alcohol level of 0.16 (according to the CBC), with the legal limit allowed in South Korea being just 0.05.

The Olympic coach was charged with drunk driving, while Dave Duncan and his wife – including the driver – were all charged with stealing that vehicle.

Duncan had finished eighth in the freestyle ski cross competition, topping his 24th Pl. finish at the previous Olympic Winter games in Sochi, Russia. Duncan has been a major fixture in the world of competitive freestyle skiing, capturing bronze and silver medals in national championship and world championship of the in 2010 and 2012.

The Olympic coach, a Mr. Willy Raine, had been in Olympic skier himself. He competed in the 1992 Winter Olympic games and had been coaching in the sport for more than 15 years.

All three of these individuals were released the same day that they were booked, according to DUI Attorney Sacramento. Police concluded their investigation in no time at all, thanks to cooperation from all three suspects, and the results of this investigation will be forwarded over to South Korean prosecutors.

These kinds of situations pop up at almost every Olympic event, including both the summer and the winter Olympic games. If history is any precedent, all involved parties are only going to have to pay a small fine – and none of them had any difficulty leaving the country, according to San Jose DUI Attorney. They all flew back to Canada shortly after the event had concluded without issue whatsoever.

The head of the Canadian Olympic Committee spoke out about the event, stating how deeply disappointed he was in the behavior of these three individuals. All athletes and coaches sign an agreement to behave according to the code of conduct and values established by the Olympic committee, something that these three obviously did not live up to.