Where’s our trunks? GB swimming team kit bags go missing
It’s just hours before Britain’s swimmers take to the pool in their first competition.
But they’ve had to prepare without kit including sportswear – after nine bags went missing.
Other specialised equipment also mysteriously vanished on the eve of the first event at the Aquatics stadium.
Some competitors are now though to be refusing to allow cleaners into their rooms in the athletes’ village – forcing coaches to do their washing up instead.
It is not known if the kit was stolen or lost in transit en route to Rio from the team’s training base in Belo Horizonte.
The British Olympic Association has replaced the kit and said the incident has not caused any major disruption.
A spokesman said: ‘A small number of bags – 9 from a total of nearly 3,000 pieces of luggage – are currently unaccounted for following their transfer from Belo Horizonte to the Olympic Village in Rio. We are working hard to locate the bags as soon as possible. In the meantime all athletes continue to train as normal and are unaffected when it comes to training and competition wear.’
The suspected theft comes amid complaints about the standard of accommodation for athletes. Lamps, mirrors and even toilet seats were stolen despite security measures including armed guards. Some teams refused to move in earlier this month when they arrived to find it unfinished and with water pouring down the walls and exposed electrical cables. The Australian team branded it ‘uninhabitable’ and put their athletes up in a hotel.
When they did eventually move in, they had kit stolen from their rooms during a fire alarm including computer equipment.
Figures show street robberies in Rio have risen by 81 per cent in a year, with murder also soaring 38 per cent.
Meanwhile, diver Tom Daley has admitted his diving trunks were too small in previous Games – and said he helped designer Stella McCartney alter them for Rio to help protect his modesty.
The 22-year-old, who will compete on Monday, said yesterday: ‘You’ll be happy to know that everything now stays in place.’
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