SYDNEY (Reuters) -- A jailed Australian drug offender was inadvertently named as one of 10,000 torchbearers to carry the Olympic flame around the country ahead of this year's Sydney Games.
The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) said Friday that the nomination of 49-year-old former judo champion Warren Austin Richards was being withdrawn after it realized he was in maximum security in Sydney's Long Bay jail.Richards is serving a 12-year sentence for conspiracy to import prohibited substances including heroin.
Richards was nominated for the torch relay as a reward for his participation in the 1976 Montreal Games. But on Friday, the AOC recommended to the Sydney Games organizing committee SOCOG that his place be officially withdrawn.
"By this morning, we recommended to SOCOG that his offer of a torch relay spot be withdrawn, and that's what will happen," AOC Secretary-General Craig McLatchey told reporters at a media conference.
Asked if the AOC was embarrassed, he said: "I think if we had the torch relay having to be re-routed through Long Bay jail, that may have been embarrassing. I don't find this embarrassing."
McLatchey said the nomination form and acceptance notification had been sent to Richards's previous home address, which was in the AOC computer system.
"We deal with thousands of athletes every week. There are some 1,400 Olympians now who are going to carry the torch, and AOC doesn't and will not be maintaining personal, detailed dossiers on each Olympian," he said.
Prison authorities told Reuters that Richards's earliest release date was 2006, and there was "no way" he would be allowed temporary release to carry the torch.