Athletes ‘steal’ themselves for Rio

Crime is seemingly set to play a big part at the Olympics as the world’s top athletes make their way to Brazil, writes Ockert de Villiers.

|||

Rio de Janeiro - With the Rio 2016 Olympic Games fast approaching, South Africa’s athletes started to arrive in the South American city in drips and drabs.

Language barriers provided some comic relief after hours of travelling, while reports of muggings proved no country was exempt from crime.

Athens 2004 Olympic gold medallist Ryk Neethling witnessed a robbery on his arrival in Rio de Janeiro, while there was the odd misplaced luggage on connecting flights.

The former Olympian and SuperSport pundit gave the harrowing account of how armed men failed in a high-jacking attempt.

“When we arrived there was a hold up in one of those tunnels where it looked like a few guys with machine guns tried to high-jack someone,” Neethling said.

“The people just carried on as if they were used to it, they said it was an attempted high-jacking and when the police arrived the guys jumped out of their cars and started running.”

While South Africa is known for its violent crime, Neethling said the incident was on a different scale compared to what is reported on back home.

“This is a bit worse than South Africa, one of our guys here, also saw a mugging at Copacabana beach, where a guy on a bike rode past a guy and just grabbed his cellphone while he was talking on it,” Neethling said.

“This place is a bit like the Wild West.”

The build-up to the Games have been dogged by reports of athletes being exposed to petty crime, and in some cases falling victim to robberies.

This is despite security being beefed up for the Games - a total of 85 000 security personal are expected to be deployed during the Olympics. Police, and military officers carrying weapons were visible at the airport, and around the Olympic venues.

Bizarre stories of how athletes were being bamboozled out of their money has also emerged over the weekend.

Chinese 110m hurdler Shi Dongpeng and a cameraman were mugged on their arrival at their hotel in Rio.

The International Sport Press Association (AIPS) reported the two were approached by a man who appeared drunk.

The man vomited over Shi, who went to the bathroom to get cleaned up while the cameraman chased the would-be robber out of the hotel.

On their return, they found the camera equipment and the athlete’s luggage had been stolen.

The Australian team seems to be feeling the brunt of shady characters in Rio, with numerous reports surfacing of athletes falling victim to crime.

During a fire evacuation at Australia’s Olympic residence, two laptops and team shirts were stolen from their rooms in the athletes’ village.

Meanwhile, after almost a month in camp in the United States, the swimming team spearheaded by Olympic champions Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh, started their journey ahead of Saturday’s first day of swimming at the Aquatics centre.

Van der Burgh’s family was here in full force, with his parents joining their son for their third Olympics from the stands.

The Star