Rio 2016: Team GB swimming kit goes missing from leaving athletes without swimwear ahead of Olympics

Nine bags went missing from Team GB rooms inside the Olympic Village, with other athletes criticising the conditions that greeted them in Rio with water leaks and unfinished rooms

Jack de Menezes
Friday 05 August 2016 13:24 BST
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Athlete posts video of gushing water in Rio building

Members of Team GB’s swimming team have seen their kit go missing from inside the Olympic Village on the day of the opening ceremony as problems continue to blight the build-up to the Rio Games.

Nine kit bags are reported to have gone missing from Team GB rooms, with competition swimwear required for Saturday’s competition inside the bags.

It leaves a number of swimmers without the correct swimwear for Saturday’s action, which will see a number of Team GB athletes compete on day one in the pool.

The fear is that the kit has been stolen from athletes’ rooms although it is not known if the items were lost in the transition from the holding camp in Belo Horizonte. Further reports claim that some team members have banned cleaners from entering their rooms.

A British Olympic Association statement read: "A small number of bags - nine from a total of nearly 3,000 pieces of luggage - are currently unaccounted for following their transfer from Belo Horizonte to the Olympic Village in Rio.

British swimmers have been left without swimwear after nine kit bags went missing from the Olympic Village

"We are working hard to locate the bags as soon as possible. In the meantime all athletes continue to train as normal and are unaffected when it comes to training and competition wear.

"The focus of athletes involved is very much on the start of the Games and their own performances."

Athletes in the Olympic Village have also posted further video footage of incomplete rooms and water leaks, raising more questions over the suitability of hosting the event in Rio de Janeiro.

Nine Team GB kit bags have gone missing from the Olympic Village

Health concerns – including the outbreak of the Zika virus – and poor construction work have meant that the Olympics begins somewhat under a cloud, although Friday’s opening ceremony can at least go a long way to lifting the gloom once the action begins.

However, members of the Jamaican team posted a video to the scene that greeted them upon their arrival in the athletes’ village, where the bathroom in one apartment was half finished and still had decorating tools lying about.

The protective cover on the flooring had already come unstuck while much of the kitchen remained incomplete with tools littering the apartment and workers still finishing construction of the apartments.

Watch the video below...

Furthermore, Czech Republic cyclist Zdenek Stybar posted a video on Instagram (above) to reveal a flow of water rushing through his accommodation after one of many water leaks in the Olympic Village.

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