Team shirts and a laptop computer belonging to a cycling official have been stolen from the Australian building in the athletes’ village at the Rio Olympics, team chief Kitty Chiller said. There have been complaints about backed up plumbing, exposed wires, and many other issues.
Advertisement
That’s the dilemma many of our Olympic contenders are facing this morning after they were robbed and forced to evacuate their building due to a fire in the basement last night. The items allegedly disappeared during the half-hour that they were outside.
“Maybe the organizing committee should mobilize their games-time defense force early”, Kitty Chiller, Australia’s Olympic team leader, said back in June.
Australia’s Olympic athletes are off to a tough start in Rio de Janeiro. “Every athletes’ village in the Olympic Games should be non-smoking so we’ve asked for that to be enforced because at the moment it’s not”.
The fire was extinguished by the fire brigade and athletes and officials returned to their quarters after approximately 30 minutes, she said.
In May, Spain’s Olympic gold-medal winning sailor Fernando Echavarri and two companions said they were held up at gunpoint by five young men in Rio.
“I wish I could run around in the (athletes’) village catching Pokemon”, New Zealand soccer player Anna Green told The Associated Press.
Chiller last Sunday refused to allow the Australians to take residence in their building, number 23 at the village, because of safety concerns.
Misenga, who hopes one day to afford to buy airplane tickets so his family can visit Brazil, said being on the refugee team means he’s representing something bigger than his native country or national flag. A cigarette is believed to be the cause, despite the village being a non-smoking venue. The workers decided the fire alarm system needed to be turned off for several hours in order for them to complete their job.
But she added: “We have reminded all our team members, especially in the village, that you keep your doors locked – your bedroom door and the apartment door”.
Firemen were stationed on every floor, with security guards in the basement, as a precaution after the scare but Chiller said such measures would not continue. The Australian team moved into the quarters mid-week and Chiller pronounced them fine.
Advertisement
Chiller said she saw three people leaving with Australian shirts created to combat the Zika virus but sensed they were fire officers and did not make an immediate protest.
