No More Caipirinhas for Dutch Gymnast Yuri van Gelder
The lure of Rio nightlife is apparently too much to handle for some of this year’s Olympic athletes. After qualifying for the men’s still rings final on Saturday, Dutch gymnast Yuri van Gelder treated himself to a Brazilian night out. When he returned to the Olympic Village past curfew on Sunday morning and admitted to drinking alcohol, two behaviors that violate the Dutch team’s code of conduct, van Gelder was expelled from the games and sent home.
"It was a very difficult decision for us to make," Maurits Hendriks, the Chef de Mission of the Netherlands Olympic team, told the International Gymnast Magazine. "This is terrible for Yuri, but... [he] has left us no choice."
Call us crazy, but we’re not sure how terrible this really is for Yuri. The real nightmare sounds like living in an antiseptic athlete’s village with an uptight Dutch coach breathing down your neck while a legendary party city lies a few hundred feet away. We hope van Gelder stays in Rio to party for the rest of the games. And hey, Yuri, here’s a hot tip: go cheer on Ma Long in his next match, then go hit up some hot samba spots in Lapa. You’re out of the games, not life.