An investigation is now underway involving Rio 2016 and the Australian Olympic Committee. “I’m not accusing anybody, but there’s a lot of non-accredited – if you like – workers, cleaners, housecleaners, and maintenance workers walking around”.
Advertisement
If the nightmare of blocked toilets followed by a fire wasn’t bad enough for the Australian athletes in the Rio Olympic village, to add insult to injury, they’ve also had property stolen during an evacuation of the team’s building.
Australian team spokesman Mike Tancred said about 100 athletes and officials were evacuated from their building in the sprawling athletes’ village.
Asked about safety implications, at a time of heightened concern about potential terror attacks, Chiller said nobody felt unsafe but all team members had been reminded to keep doors locked and valuables secure.
The fire will once again draw attention to Rio’s spotty preparations, which have been marred by the Zika virus, severe water pollution, crime, and slow ticket sales. “No-one can enter the village now without the proper screening, background checks and accreditation”, he said. At least a dozen other teams also complained of problems that affected about 400 of the 3,600 rooms in the sprawling compound.
This is the latest in a number of issues afflicting the Australian team, who only moved into the athlete’s village Wednesday, three days after the official opening.
Kitty Chiller said other computer equipment was “rifled through” but was left behind during the theft on Friday.
There had been “numerous people” given approval to deactivate the alarms – now there would be just one, she said.
The incident “was extremely concerning and disturbing”, Chiller said then.
Chiller could not say whether the laptop contained sensitive data, and neither could she state how many shirts were missing.
Advertisement
“I don’t know what they look like anymore because we were separated since we were small”.
