An Olympic rower has recalled the “frightening” moment he feared a motorboat rider was going to “ram” him on the River Thames.
Jack Beaumont, who won silver in the men’s quadruple sculls at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, said he had been training when he saw a motorboat collide with a rowing boat near Maidenhead Rowing Club at around 7.15am on Sunday.
He said that after trying to intervene, the man driving the motorboat then began “shouting and swearing” and “threatening” him.
A man aged 67, from Windsor, was arrested after the alleged incident.
He has since been released on conditional police bail while the investigation continues, Thames Valley Police said.
Mr Beaumont told The Times: “I was afraid [when he came towards me] because there’s not really anywhere to go on the river.
“I was worried he was going to really ram into me or something. It was frightening because he was so erratic, he was so volatile.”
Speaking about what happened, he said: “When you’re rowing, you’re going backwards so [the rowers] weren’t expecting him and then at the last second they noticed. One of them managed to manoeuvre around him but the other one hit the boat.
“And then he just lost his mind. He started shouting at them. I can’t remember what he was saying but it was very, very threatening. I was quite concerned because of the way he was speaking to them, I was quite afraid he might hurt them.”
Mr Beaumont told the newspaper that he told the rowers to write down the boat’s name.
He added: “I wanted him to leave [the other rowers] alone and let them get away from him.
“He drove over [to me] immediately just shouting and swearing at me, threatening me. It was totally unreasonable.”
He also said the boatman reversed his boat “super quick” towards him so that he had to move out of the way.
Police said a man verbally abused rowers and drove a white and blue boat dangerously on the River Thames.
During the incident, the boat is reported to have made contact with a rowing boat and its occupant.
The man then allegedly continued to verbally abuse a second rower, who repeatedly rowed away from the boat as it approached him.
Detective Inspector Laura Al-Owaied said: “We are carrying out a thorough investigation into this incident, which understandably caused concern within the local community.
“We are treating this investigation as a priority and there will be an increased police presence in the area to provide reassurance to local residents and river users.
“I am appealing to anybody who was in the area between 7am and 7.30am on Sunday morning and may have witnessed this incident to please come forward.
“We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have CCTV, dash-cam or mobile phone footage from the area during this time.
“Any information could assist our investigation.”
Maidenhead Rowing Club said in a statement: “One of our members, rowing a single scull on the river, was involved in a collision with another river user.
“The individual responsible then headed toward a second member of our club. Damage was caused to club equipment as a result.
“We regard this as a serious and dangerous incident. The safety of everyone on the water is our absolute priority and behaviour of this kind, endangering other river users in this way, is entirely unacceptable.
“We will not tolerate any act that puts our members, or any other user of the river, at risk.”
