Rio was supposed to be the realising of an Olympic dream for Hunter hockey player Simon Orchard.
Instead, the Games and life as he knew it quickly turned upside down.
Just days after being knocked out of medal contention with favourites the Kookaburras, the 30-year-old spent a night in a Brazilian police station facing fraud charges without a passport.
“If someone had’ve said what was going to happen, than no one would have done it,” Orchard told the Newcastle Herald upon his safe arrival home this week.
“We honestly thought they would pull the stickers off and let us go, or call in someone from the AOC [Australian Olympic Committee] to slap us on wrist and say don’t do it again.
“No way we thought we’d end up in a police station for the best part of 10 to 12 hours and potentially staying in Brazil for another month to sort it out.
“We didn’t sleep throughout the night.”
Orchard, who took time away from the game last year to deal with anxiety issues, and nine other Australian team members from various sports were caught with falsified accreditation at last Friday’s basketball semi-final featuring the Boomers.
They were part of a large contingent of Australian athletes keen to see the game live and support their fellow green and gold squad members, however, only limited spots were available.
But despite having already purchased a ticket independently for the event beforehand and despite many others already making their way into the stands ahead of him, Orchard didn’t see a single minute of the match.
His accreditation, with an additional all access sticker provided by the AOC, was spotted by Rio volunteers and reported to officials.
Along with nine other young Aussies at the back of the pack he was bailed into a security room and the unexpected response may put an end to a long standing Games tradition.
“The hard part is, it has happened for years,” he said.
“Any Olympian will tell you, rightly or wrongly, the Australian team has done this to support teammates and it’s fun.
“It’s almost like a right of passage to sneak into an event with Lawrie Lawrence or someone like that leading the charge.
“It’s a great part of the Olympics but obviously one that probably won’t happen from now on.”
A “relieved” Orchard said it was hard to fathom a “disappointing” and “underwhelming” campaign for the Kookaburras, who were knocked out in the quarter-final stages after collecting bronze in London.
He remains committed to playing for Australia in the near future but is unsure about selection for the next Olympics in Tokyo.
