A member of Team U.S.A. has been charged with domestic assault just days before the Winter Olympic Games come to a close. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Bill Schuffenhauer, 36, and booked him on one count of assault. Staff Sgt. Steve LeClair tells Fox News that the RCMP were called to 2300 block of Nordic Drive shortly before 11p.m. Wednesday night. That’s in a suburb just south of Whistler Village.
A member of the Integrated Security Unit, which has been assembled to secure the Olympics, separated a man and a woman who were fighting outside a townhouse. The RCMP interviewed the woman and determined that an assault had taken place. LeClair says the woman had minor injuries. They arrested the man, booked him for assault and released him after he posted a $500. cash bond. He was ordered to have no contact with the woman.
While the RCMP is not releasing the man’s name, the U.S. Olympic Committee has confirmed it’s Bill Schuffenhauer. The USOC issued a statement which read, “We understand Bill Schuffenhauer, a member of the U.S. Bobsled team, was detained and released by authorities in Whistler. At this point we are awaiting further details.”
Schuffenhauer was a member of the bobsled team that won a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. It was the first medal for the U.S. in bobsled in 46 years of competing. Schuffenhauer is listed as a pusher, 6 feet, 220 lbs. He’s from Ogden, Utah. On the website he says he “enjoys spending time with his fiance Ruthann and two children.”
He’s scheduled to compete in the 4-man bobled event Friday.
The RCMP has recommended a charge of assualt, but the Crown will likely determine whether to file in a week.