Jack Beaumont, an Olympic silver medallist rower, intervened after a motorboat skipper appeared to collide with two fellow rowers on the Thames near Maidenhead on Sunday morning, then hurled abuse and reversed towards him in an apparent attempt to ram his boat. Beaumont, 32, said he deliberately drew the "erratic" and "volatile" 67-year-old driver away from the other rowers, fearing he might otherwise be seriously hurt; witnesses described the incident as potentially "life-threatening" and the boat owner has since been arrested.

Footage obtained by the Daily Mail shows the motorboat captain, whose vessel is understood to be called the Mayfair Lady, swearing at Beaumont and threatening him before revving his engine and giving chase down the river. The man, said to sometimes live aboard his boat and to have clashed previously with Maidenhead Rowing Club, was arrested on suspicion of making threats to kill, assault, and endangering others with a watercraft, and remained in custody as of Tuesday. Beaumont, who won quadruple sculls silver at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and previously overcame a broken back to compete at Rio 2016, comes from a rowing family, as his father Peter competed at the 1988 Seoul Games.