Australian hockey players who sought to drown their sorrows in beer after losing the Olympic gold medal match also temporarily lost their freedom on Friday, after breaching Covid-19 rules by leaving the athletes’ village to buy the booze.
Five members of the men’s squad had been reprimanded and isolated in their rooms, Australia’s chef de mission Ian Chesterman said. It is the fourth sport after rowing, soccer and rugby sevens to have athletes disciplined by Australian Olympic bosses during the Tokyo Games.
Three Australian men’s hockey players went to a nearby convenience store on Friday at 3am and bought two cartons of beer. Another two players left the village for the store at 6am but returned without a purchase. The players self-reported their breach to Australian officials and the entire Kookaburras squad was tested for coronavirus. They all returned negative results.
Chesterman said three of the players left the village to buy two cases of beer at 3am on Friday, hours after Australia lost the final to Belgium. Under the state of emergency operating in Tokyo for the duration of the Games, athletes are restricted to the Olympic Village and competition venues.
“We have reprimanded them,” Chesterman said. “We have isolated them in their rooms … they are feeling deep remorse, they have let their own teammates down. The players themselves have not done any harm outside the village, they haven’t done any harm inside the village. My concern is they have breached the protocols.
“In the Australian culture – indeed, in many places right around the world – people celebrate and commiserate over a drink, so that is understandable behaviour for them. What wasn’t acceptable to us was the breach of the [Tokyo Olympic] playbook.”
In the so-called playbooks released by Tokyo Olympic organisers, athletes are banned from leaving the village unless for training or competition. Tokyo organisers had threatened any athlete who breached the playbooks with expulsion from the Games.
“They have embarrassed the Kookaburras, the Australian Olympic team and it’s completely out of character,” Kookaburras coach Colin Batch said.
Chesterman refused to name the five players who were disciplined, after previously reprimanding some rowers, soccer players and men’s rugby sevens players for alcohol-related incidents. In previous incidents at the Tokyo Games, some Australian rowers damaged a room in the athletes’ village. And Australia’s men’s soccer players and the nation’s men’s rugby sevens team were also reprimanded after a drunken flight home.