Drunk Hammer-Thrower Barters Gold Medal For Taxi

The IAAF World Championships are happening now in Beijing, and here are its major stories: Bolt won, Gatlin lost, and a drunk Pole bartered his hammer-throw gold medal for a taxi ride. Truly, we are living in a golden age of track and field.

Pawel Fajdek of Poland won men’s hammer gold (an event which, surprisingly, involves no actual hammers) on Sunday evening. The 26-year-old trounced his nearest competitor by over two meters, as definitive an ass-kicking as could happen on an international stage. The win also represented his successful defense of his 2013 World Championships gold. So why not get super drunk in a foreign land.

The next morning, after an evening which multiple Polish reporters remember the athlete having “drunk a lot in the celebration party,” Fajdek likely woke hung-over and definitely sans medal. Convinced a crime must have occurred, he reported it to police. The police retraced his previous night’s steps to a taxi driver, the taxi driver said Fajdek willingly bartered his gold medal in exchange for a ride, and the driver allegedly returned the medal under police “persuasion.”

Fajdek comes from Poland. So does vodka. What is the real embarrassment here.

Photo: Getty Images