As a follow-up to the report that Australian swimming great Grant Hackett was involved in an alleged assault incident aboard a flight earlier this week, details have emerged regarding the ordeal.
In an alleged altercation surrounding Sydney-based real estate agent Martin Slobodnik having reclined his seat mid-flight, Hackett reportedly forcefully grabbed Slobodnik’s nipple, “tweaking” it.
Although the alleged victim said he felt “unsafe and violated” by Hackett and the swimmer was questioned by the Australian Federal Police immediately following the flight’s arrival, Slobodnik has decided to not press charges.
“I can still feel his hands groping. I still feel violated,” Slobodnik told The Herald Sun.“My nipple still hurts, my chest still hurts.”
The alleged victim was questioned by an Aussie Channel 9 reporter in the segment below, but Slobodnik declined to comment:
The single greatest piece of journalism ever. pic.twitter.com/PD2dd6IMz7
— Dan Anstey (@Dan_Anstey) April 19, 2016
Shortly after reports of the incident were made public, Hackett issued an apology.
“I seriously and genuinely regret my poor behaviour,” he said in a statement. “I have stuffed up more than once and am working on these issues. It is embarrassing to hear and read the consequences of my actions. I apologise unreservedly to the gentleman on the flight. I am trying to make direct contact with him personally. I know I have to front the media and discuss my actions in a more appropriate and accountable way.”
“I just have to sort a few things first so I can be as frank and open as I need to be. I apologise for the inconvenience.”
Just today, Australia’s Chef de Mission for Rio, Kitty Chiller, says it will be left up to Swimming Australia to determine if Hackett will play any role in the team’s preparation for the Olympic Games.
“That’s purely up to Swimming Australia whatever that mentor role may or not have been,” said Chiller. “Grant having failed to make the team last week or missed out, he’s not part of the Australian Olympic Team as an athlete or an official.”
At one point it was mentioned by Swimming Australia that Hackett would be involved in a mentoring capacity, about which Chiller commented, “The mentoring role, to be honest I doubt whether it would’ve involved an accreditation anyway, so it’s a role that Swimming Australia may have had him doing domestically perhaps.”
Chiller concluded, “It’s totally up to Swimming Australia, it’s their call on what happens next.”
I’m embarrassed for Australians in general right now, for one of your own to complain this much about a nipple twist really hurts their man’s man reputation.
Australians are surely not embarrassed by a domestic slight incident . U wanna know how i feel embarrassed by the Brussels fiasco lately as a Belgian ? Airport fiasco management / flight compagnies dont wanna land in Brussels now + Tower controllers going on strike on both airports , Police deficiency on all levels , and i could add a few more to the list of Unresponsible Politics .
Ervinforthewin – The Political & the Personal . Often the former is out of our control & we must subject ourselves to personal -rights transgressions e.g. body checks , scannings , interrogations , shoe inspections because of terrorist incidents . On the personal , everyone needs constant reminders about self control . I would like to see Breathylisers & perhaps random drug screening before flights .
Perhaps we should advise ourselves & friends not to fly across the nation after big disappointments . There are too many frustrations inbuilt into flying as it is .
This is SO ridiculous! Thank GOD it’s not on one of the cable networks. Can you imagine this being televised 24/7!? So now he’s checking himself into a hospital?! I think everybody creating a hubbub over all this should have there heads examined. Cite him for public disturbance and then done! Geez.
The hospitalization seems to be unrelated to this incident…
I think the guy that got his “nipple tweaked” is over reacting. It’s so so sad that because of one person being a jackass an Olympic icon has to go get help because everyone is telling him to.
““I can still feel his hands groping. I still feel violated,” “My nipple still hurts, my chest still hurts.”
Give me a break I’m laughing my a** off
You’re right.
“Alcoholics with violence problems should be left alone. We’re doing just fine on our own.”
-Johnny Manziel
That awkward moment when that may be an actual, real quote from Johnny…
Of the top of my head you just used three logical fallacies in that comparison: a non sequitur, an ad hominem, and a false equivalence. Not saying you’re definitely wrong, just that you probably are.
Victim shaming is disgraceful. The body stores many memories and just because the victims is male doesn’t mean he hasn’t suffered abuse in the past. To feel violated is natural for a survivor of sexual abuse when strangers place their hands on you. His nipple hurting may be psychological because of past violence or sexual abuse – again, a natural response. If it was a woman, you wouldn’t be so smug. Boys get abused too. Don’t water it down because it makes you feel somehow “manly”. Grant needs help for himself and to protect others from his vile behaviour.
I second that – what sort of weak humans take airplanes today ? i wonder …… it seems that guy has never been seriously challenged in life . What a poor behavior from a guy who suddenly came to reclaim his seat after the flight went half way – His memory loss should also be consulted in a hospital .
A lot of consternation over a purple nurple. It’s not as though it were an “atomic wedgie” or “super noogie”. Leave the Olympian alone.
I agree
It’s one thing to give one to a friend as a joke. But you can’t just go around twisting stranger’s nipples when you don’t like something they did.
Humiliating another man in public is NOT a small thing. I can understand why the man said he’s feels violated. He WAS.
lol you pansy
He needs to fade away for a while and work out his issues.