The Mexican softball team left their uniforms in Olympic Village bins. Photo / Twitter
The Mexican softball team left their uniforms in Olympic Village bins. Photo / Twitter
An Olympic team has outraged their nation and fellow athletes after reportedly dumping their uniforms in an Olympic Village bin.
Uniforms worn by Mexico's softball team, who lost to Australia in their opening round then to Canada for the bronze medal on Tuesday, were found discarded on Thursday.
Mexican boxerBrianda Tamara Cruz was the one to discover them, and took to Twitter to express her subsequent anger.
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Sharing a photo she took of the binned outfits, she condemned the softball team over the disrespectful act.
"The uniform has the national flag embroidered, therefore it cannot and should not be thrown away," one response read.
"Obviously they do not feel Mexican, they do not feel the colours, nor the flag," another wrote.
"It is a lack of respect for the Mexico flag. There are countries that would be proud to have an Olympic uniform," a third, who shared more images of the discarded uniforms, said.
Following the uproar, an investigation was launched by Mexico's Olympic committee, but president Carlos Padilla later played down the accusations.
He told ESPN the team made the "regrettable" decision to throw away their uniforms "in favour of some bedspreads from the Olympic village".
Boxer Brianda Tamara Cruz shared her outrage online after seeing the uniforms in the bin. Photo / Twitter
Similarly, the Mexican Softball Federation expressed early outrage over the matter, but its president later said it came down to there being "too much cargo".
"We won't be going after anyone or responding, or rebutting anything on social media," Rolando Guerrero said, according to ESPN.
The justification was not accepted by everyone, with some arguing the team could have chosen to free up luggage space by leaving behind other items.
"If it was as the softball coach says overweight, they could have left the cell phones and gifts that they were given in the village," one said.
Others speculated the players, who were mostly American-born, didn't care about the uniforms because they only represented Mexico for an opportunity to attend the Olympics.
