Australian Olympic Teams Under Fire for Disruptive Behavior on Flight Home

Australia’s men’s soccer and rugby teams are being investigated for alleged rowdy, drunken behavior on a 10-hour flight home to Sydney from the Tokyo Olympics.

And there could be more, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

“There were nine sports involved, so I called the chief executives (of each sport) in on Sunday morning, gave them a briefing, asked them to investigate their other athletes and officials. The sports came back to me over the course of Sunday and Monday,” Australia Olympic Committee Executive Director Matt Carroll said. “I know what happened, but I don’t know who. That’s why I asked the sports themselves, the CEOs, who are very upset about it as you would expect and very displeased with their athletes.”

Sources told the newspaper a number of players were heavily intoxicated and that vomit was left in a bathroom on the Japan Airlines flight following a long drinking session.

“It was bad behavior,” Carroll said. “Drinking in the aisles, [not] following instructions, athletes were saying they were drinking and that’s why they weren’t wearing their mask. That’s not good enough, particularly [because it was] keeping people up late at night. There were other Australians returning on that flight … it’s not the standard the Australian Olympic Committee expects and not the standard the sports expect too.”

Rugby Australia and Football (soccer) Australia, the governing bodies, are now investigating.

“It’s extremely disappointing but both rugby and football have told me that such behavior is certainly not acceptable within their sports and have sincerely apologized to the Australian Olympic Team,” Carroll added. “The CEOs have undertaken to take the appropriate action and report back to us.”