Australian athletes have been arrested in Rio for alleged tampering with accreditation

SEVERAL Australian Olympic athletes have been arrested at the Boomers’ semi-final and are being questioned at a police station.

Rio Olympics Games 2016. Australian Athletes being held by Police at a police station opposite Olympic Park. Australian team officials bring water into the police station. RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil. Picture Cameron Tandy.

SEVERAL Australian Olympic athletes are being questioned at a Rio police station for alleged accreditation tampering after being arrested at the basketball semi-finals tonight.

News Corp can reveal that up to nine athletes from at least three different sports are being questioned by police in Rio for allegedly tampering with their accreditation passes and were detained at the event.

Australian Olympic Committee lawyer Fiona de Jong is currently with the athletes talking to police as they’re being questioned.

The IOC and Rio police have launched a crackdown on accreditations in the wake of the Ryan Lochte incident earlier this week.

Australian team media boss Mike Tancred confirmed police were talking to nine Australian athletes over the matter.

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Deputy chef de mission Fiona de Jong says none of the 10 Aussies have been arrested or charged, just detained pic.twitter.com/HVLCLf3oaI

— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) August 20, 2016

Australian Athletes being held by Police at a police station opposite Olympic Park. Picture Cameron Tandy.

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“Some people tried to tamper with their accreditation,” Tancred said.

“They’ve got stopped by people over at the stadium.

“It’s really a matter for the IOC as they’re in charge of accreditations. If you tamper with accreditations it is their problem.

“We’re over there with the lawyer.”

This is not the first time Australian athletes have used their accreditations to gain access to events at an Olympics, with former team motivator Laurie Lawrence notorious for sneaking athletes into events in the second week of the Games.

The police station where Aussie athletes are being held

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Lawrence, who is not with the team here in Rio, routinely found ways to get athletes into events and often it meant breaching the access rights of their passes.

The AOC will argue that the athletes have not broken any Brazilian laws in tampering with their passes, but given the sensitivities since the Lochte incident earlier this week local police are not taking any risks.

While the matter is purely a matter for the IOC to handle, there is a chance the athletes could have their accreditations revoked which would mean the athletes would need to be sent home.

It is the latest indiscretion to strike the Australian Olympic team which has already confronted issues of drunken rugby players, late-night partying swimmers and now nine athletes detained by police.

More to follow....

Originally published as Australian athletes have been arrested in Rio for alleged tampering with accreditation