The Australian Olympic cycling team had their van broken into and some of their belongings stolen overnight in Brussels, Belgium, a few days before the Olympics.
In a video uploaded to social media, the right passenger window of the team’s van was smashed and some of their belongings were taken. Fortunately, most of the team’s belongings were in their room.
“Luckily, my bikes weren’t in there, although my bike bags were in there, with some things in it,” 30-year-old Australian BMX star said.
Police were called in to investigate, and many items were located and recovered with the help of bag tags.
The team found their bags and belongings, including their tools, gloves, and massage table on or on the ground behind a park bench.
“Our van got broken into overnight. Luckily most of our stuff was in our room and we managed to recover a lot of it too,” Mr. Martin said.
“I lost my wallet, backpack and a few other things but overall it didn’t end up being too bad. It’s unfortunate when people feel the need to do things like this.
“Crazy start to the trip,” he said.
The Australian Olympic team’s chef de mission Anna Meares was relieved that their bikes had not been taken.
“It was unfortunate that the car was broken into. What we do know is that Logan’s bikes are ok,” she said.
“As you can appreciate, having sporting equipment, you potentially lose it this close to a competition can be quite stressful, [but] his bikes are fine.”
“We are encouraging them if they go out of the village, not to go out on their own, not to wear team uniform, just to wear plain clothes,” Ms. Meares told media in a press conference.
“What information we are passing on to our athletes is that security presence is really, really high, and that’s in order for them to be able to act as quickly as possible to keep them safe. We don’t yet have any feedback from our athletes that they have felt unsafe.”
