Two Aussie Olympic athletes – four-time medallist Emma McKeon and her teammate Joshua Palmer – have been disciplined and banned from the Rio closing ceremony after breaking team curfew getting certifiably loose on Tuesday night.
So loose, in fact, that Palmer says he was robbed of $1000. He was forced to withdraw the cash from an ATM at gunpoint by a grifter while trying to make his way home. He was found the following day on Copacabana Beach by a businessman at approximately 2pm. On a beach, 12 hours later, with $1000 missing? Yup. That’s a big night.
News Corp reports that six Aussie swimmers had been partying at Heineken House before moving onto a nightclub later in the night. McKeon decided to stay with friends in Copacabana rather than returning to the athlete’s village, but failed to notify management that she was doing that. She admitted on Twitter that was her error.
To clarify, I’ve followed AOC safety protocol in not travelling to village alone. My error was not texting my team manager. #noclosingforme
— Emma McKeon (@emma_mckeon) August 18, 2016
Chef de mission Kitty Chiller disciplined the athletes, and handed down a 2am curfew to all athletes. “Everything we put in place is not (about being) the fun police, it’s not the party poopers, it is ensuring their safety remains paramount,” she said.
Chiller says she accepts Palmer’s story about the robbing. “Certainly I don’t know if there were any substances involved, he admitted he had been drinking and that’s all we know,’’ she said.
“He told us he was asked to go to the ATM and $1000 was withdrawn and that has been confirmed. Josh has decided not to go to the police and we suggested he did.”
“We are not able to investigate any further and we can’t force him to go to the police.”
Guess that’s the end of the Rio party.
Source: news.com.au.
Photo: Getty Images / Chris Graythen.
