Aussies behaving badly: Rugby, football teams play up on boozy flight home
Rugby Australia and Football Australia are investigating the booze-fuelled conduct of returning Olympians on a flight home from Tokyo.
The menās rugby sevens team, which suffered a quarter-final loss, and the Olyroos, who failed to progress beyond the group stage of their Olympic campaign, are both in hot water.
Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) chief executive Matt Carroll convened a meeting of his counterparts at sporting organisations with representatives on the flight.
Carroll says Rugby Australia (RA) and Football Australia (FA) are probing the antics, which came after some departing Australian Olympians caused damage to their accommodation.
āWhile there has been no formal complaint from the airline, unacceptable behaviour was brought to our attention and I directly raised the issue with our member sportsā Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) chief executive Matt Carroll said.
āItās extremely disappointing.
āBoth rugby and football have told me that such behaviour is certainly not acceptable within their sports and have sincerely apologised to the Australian Olympic team.
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āThe CEOs have undertaken to take the appropriate action and report back to us.ā
Rugby Australia (RA) confirmed in a statement that it had ābegun its own internal investigation into the matter based on the information provided by the AOCā.
Australiaās chef de mission Ian Chesterman is yet to address the matter publicly, but has revealed no disciplinary action would be taken against athletes who prompted a COVID-19 scare by mingling with other residents inside the village.
The alleged indiscretions come five years after Chestermanās predecessor Kitty Chiller said she āread the riot actā to male sevens players after a drunken night out in Rio de Janeiro.
Chesterman admitted on Tuesday morning that some Australian Olympians left their rooms in an āunacceptableā condition and caused what he termed āminorā damage.
Amid reports that cleaners had to mop up vomit, Chesterman confirmed a hole was left in one wall and that Australiaās emu and kangaroo mascots went missing in the village for several days.
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āThere was some damage in the rooms and some were left messy,ā Chesterman said.
āThe rooms were not trashed in any way.
āItās a matter of a small number of people making a mistake and theyāre going to have to live with that.
āIāve had expressions of great remorse from a number of athletes who were involved in these incidents.
āThey feel disappointed they have contributed to this conversation about behavioural matters in a team that has been exceptional on and off the field.ā
Chesterman said causing damaging to rooms in the village was not difficult to do.
āThereās some big people and some very flimsy walls, temporary walls as well,ā he said.
Chesterman denied claims that he had to apologise to Great Britain officials for the behaviour of Australian athletes.
On the once-missing mascots, Chesterman noted āthere was a bit of a search for themā.
āWe were just about to get the āWantedā signs around the village and post a reward for their return,ā he said.
āThey are back in place.
āThey went missing around the 28th ā¦ they enjoyed a pleasant holiday in Deutschland.ā
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