As a world-champion hammer thrower, Pawel Fajdek should be accustomed to being dizzy.
But he stepped beyond his own limits a couple of nights ago in Beijing.
Fresh off a win at the World Athletics Championships, the Polish athlete reportedly enjoyed a night out with friends — and used his gold medal to pay the taxi fare back to his hotel.
The tale was reported by Chinese news service Tencent (via The Independent), which said Polish journalists who had seen Fajdek at a restaurant that night confirmed he had "drunk a lot in the celebration party."
When Fajdek woke up in the morning and realised what had happened, he contacted police, who were able to track down the cab driver and retrieve the medal.