Emma McKeon and Josh Palmer banned from closing ceremony after big night out

TWO Aussie swimmers have been banned from the closing ceremony after night of partying. One of them was found disoriented on Copacabana Beach.

FOUR-TIME Olympic medallist Emma McKeon and her Australian teammate Joshua Palmer have been banned from the Olympic closing ceremony after breaking team curfew partying in Rio on Tuesday night.

Palmer was robbed of $1000 after he was forced to an ATM to withdraw cash at gunpoint. A businessman found him on Copacabana Beach at 2pm on Wednesday.

McKeon did not return to the village and instead stayed with friends in Copacabana without informing team management.

Chef de mission Kitty Chiller disciplined the swimmers today while every athlete has now been handed a 2am curfew for the remainder of the Games.

It is understood Palmer was only found by an Australian businessman in the afternoon after a drinking session starting at 10pm the previous night, and was unable to account for the missing hours.

News Corp understands a group of at least six Australian swimmers headed to Rio’s Heineken House before moving onto nightclub Miroir until between 4.30am-6am.

From there 22-year-old McKeon, who has won four medals at these Rio Games, decided to stay with two friends from the Swedish swimming team rather than catch an hour-long taxi back to Baja alone.

Palmer decided to head to a Copacabana Beach kiosk with tourist Justin Quill, a Herald Sun lawyer, while the rest of the group returned to the athletes village.

Quill left Palmer some time before 10am, believing he was about to catch a taxi home to the athletes’ village.

But Palmer has told Australian Olympic Committee officials he was accosted by a hawker, whose associates forced him to withdraw $1000 at gunpoint.

Emma McKeon is banned from the closing ceremony.

Joshua Palmer was robbed in Rio — now he’s banned from the closing ceremony.

It is still not clear why he did not return to the athletes’ village. The businessman who found him contacted the Australian consulate.

McKeon’s only crime was to not text swimming’s team leader to alert him to her decision to stay with friends overnight.

She tweeted today: “To clarify, I’ve followed AOC safety protocol in not travelling to village alone. My error was not texting my team manager.”

Significant holes remain in Palmer’s story, including how he spent the hours between 10am and 2pm.

He has also changed elements of his story, including at first admitting he was sleeping on the beach then later saying he was only sitting on the beach.

Despite Chiller’s encouragement he has decided against reporting the incident to police, but AOC officials have checked his bank accounts and confirmed the money was withdrawn.

To clarify, I've followed AOC safety protocol in not travelling to village alone. My error was not texting my team manager. #noclosingforme

— Emma McKeon (@emma_mckeon) August 18, 2016

Chiller said today the confusion over Ryan Lochte’s interaction with police after alleging a carjacking might have dissuaded Palmer from involving police.

Chef de mission Kitty Chiller disciplined the swimmers today while every athlete has now been handed a 2am curfew for the remainder of the Games.

Palmer competed for Australia in the 100m breaststroke on the first day of competition, but will remain in Rio under an 8pm-8am curfew in the village.

Chiller said today Australian athletes could be sent home soon after their Olympic competition in future Olympics to prevent a repeat of this situation.

“That will certainly come into our review. We put increased protocols into place for this Games to ensure a high-performance environment at the village remains in place,’’ she said.

“If we need to go further to ensure that remains in place and also the safety of our athletes remains in place, absolutely it’s something we would look at.

“Everything we put in place is not (about being) the fun police, it’s not the party poopers, it is ensuring their safety remains paramount.”

Rio Day 12: Aussies at the 2016 Olympics

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Chiller said Palmer’s ban related to his failure to alert officials about his whereabouts rather than confusion over the ATM robbery.

Yet she could not detail what Palmer was drinking or whether there were illicit substances involved.

“Certainly I don’t know if there were any substances involved, he admitted he had been drinking and that’s all we know,’’ he said.

“He told us he was asked to go to the ATM and $1000 was withdrawn and that has been confirmed. Josh has decided not to go to the police and we suggested he did.

“We are not able to investigate any further and we can’t force him to go to the police.

“We believe what he said, we have no reason to doubt what he said.

“He is angry and he has come back with what happened to him around 10am yesterday morning and 1.40pm in the afternoon. We have no reason to doubt him.”

Originally published as Emma McKeon and Josh Palmer banned from closing ceremony after big night out