An Olympic wrestler was arrested in Paris on Friday morning over an allegation of sexual assault, local prosecutors said.
Mohamed Elsayed, a 26-year-old who won a bronze medal for Egypt in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Tokyo Games in 2021, was detained outside a bar at around 5 a.m.
Elsayed was accused of “placing his hand on a female customer’s buttocks,” according to the public prosecutor’s office.
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A report from Le Parisien said the athlete was “completely drunk” after spending a large part of his night in Café Oz, an Australian-themed rooftop bar.
In a statement, Egypt’s Olympic Committee said Elsayed will face a disciplinary hearing, according to Reuters. If the accusations are true, he could be hit with sanctions including a possible lifetime ban from competition, the committee said.
Elsayed was granted permission to watch the last wrestling match in his weight category but then failed to return to the mission headquarters and switched off his phone, the statement added.
At the Paris Games, Elsayed’s own participation came to an end when he was defeated in the round of 16 on Wednesday by Azerbaijan’s Hasrat Jafarov.
His arrest comes after another Olympian—Australian field hockey player Tom Craig—was busted for allegedly trying to buy cocaine from a teenager on Tuesday night.
Read it at France 24
