The Olympic snowboarding champion Shaun White has issued an apology for his bad behaviour in Nashville over the weekend. Shaun – who is known as The Flying Tomato because of his red hair – was arrested for public intoxication and vandalism after his drunken outburst early on Sunday morning (September 16, 2012). On his Facebook page, White wrote a message to say “I want to apologize for the unwise choices I made over the weekend and for any inconvenience it caused my family, friends, business partners, the hotel and their guests… I was celebrating a happy occasion with a ton of family and friends and got carried away. I'm truly sorry for my poor behavior."

‘Poor behaviour,’ indeed! Shaun got himself into a whole heap of trouble when he pulled a hotel fire alarm and then tried to flee the scene by cab, only to find himself thwarted by a citizen – who he later kicked. After trying to get away on foot, White tripped and hit his head on a fence. A Shaun White mugshot sees him looking pretty ropey, too, with a serious shiner on his left eye. He was taken to hospital to get checked over but hadn’t escaped the wrath of the local police department and the whole debacle ended with Shaun White arrested.

According to People magazine, a source close to the snowboarder disputes allegations that he also trashed his hotel room and would not confirm that he spent time in jail. He was not seriously injured in the incident, though we suspect his pride may have taken a bit of a bruising.