WASHINGTON — The Australian Olympic Committee was not happy about the behavior of some of their athletes who reportedly damaged beds and put a hole in a wall at their accommodations at the Tokyo Games.
Reports surfaced Tuesday in Australia and internationally describing the "unacceptable behavior," according to the AOC, from Australian athletes spending their last hours in Tokyo and on the plane headed back home, Reuters reported.
As the New York Times pointed out, citing a report from Australia's Herald Sun, athletes from the Australian men's rowing team along with members of Rugby Australia had finished their events at the Olympics and got drunk and damaged their rooms, including leaving behind vomit, as one report said.
Reuters also reported that the Australian team's mascots, a life-sized emu and kangaroo, also vanished for a short time, but were later found in an area where members of the German team were staying.
Ian Chesterman, the chief for Team Australia defended the athletes saying that no further disciplinary action was planned after apologies were issued by athletes involved.
Chesterman said, "Some young people made a mistake, they had left the rooms in a condition that was unacceptable." He said the damage was "minor" and noted that regarding damage to the much-talked about "cardboard beds" in the Olympic accommodations in Tokyo, that it was "not the hardest thing to break the cardboard bed."
Chesterman pushed back on the accusation that the rooms were left in a horrible state saying, "The rooms were not completely trashed in any way."
He defended the athletes further saying, "It is a book as old as time: a good young person makes a mistake, chapter two is a good, young person is full of remorse. Chapter three is a good young person learns from the mistake and becomes a better person."
Rugby Australia has also launched their own investigation to clarify what happened.
The organization said, "Rugby Australia expects the highest standards of all its employees, modelling the values of our game - respect, integrity, passion and teamwork."
Australian Olympic Committee Chief Executive Officer Matt Carroll is aware of the incident as well as reports of "rowdy" behavior on the flight with athletes leaving Japan as well, calling it "extremely disappointing."
There was no formal complaint from the airline that the athletes were on, Carroll said.