Olympic medalist Akani Simbine slams OR Tambo International Airport after having his personal items stolen

By Animesh Pandey

Modified Oct 07, 2024 03:08 GMT

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Olympic medalist Akani Simbine from South Africa was robbed of his personal items at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. The 31-year-old sprinter was anguished with the local airport authorities and had to resort to social media.

In a short thread on his X account [formerly Twitter], Simbine recounted the incident and slammed the airport authorities for their negligence. He wrote,

"@ortambo_int I can’t keep having to deal with having my bags being broken into each time I fly in or out of South Africa and my personal items stolen by your employees the whole time. This is too much now and it’s a constant thing!"

"It’s costing me to replace things and just the fact that my personal bag has been invaded is just wrong! Sort this out please!!!!," he further added.

The OR Tambo International Airport responded to his post and asked if he had filed an official complaint for the same. As per their reply on the X account,

"...Rest assured that ACSA will fully cooperate with the relevant airline during the investigation processes. Regards, ZD"

Akani Simbine recently competed at the Wanda Diamond League Finals 2024 that took place in Brussels, Belgium. The South African sprinter finished fifth overall in the finals of the men's 100m event, which was eventually won by Ackeem Blake of Jamaica.

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Akani Simbine at the Paris Olympics

Akani Simbine [Extreme Right] with his teammates after winning the silver medal in men's 4x100m relay finals at the Paris Olympics [Image Source: Getty]

Akani Simbine was hopeful of a better result at the Paris Olympics. The South African sprinter made his Olympic debut at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. However, he missed the chance to be on the podium in the men's 100m, when he finished fourth with a timing of 9.93 seconds.

Simbine began well, topping his preliminary heats with a timing of 10.03 seconds. He topped his heats in the semifinals as well, clocking an impressive time of 9.87 seconds. The finals were intense, and the results had to be decided via a photo finish.

Despite creating a new national record of 9.82 seconds, Simbine missed out on the Olympic medal by one-hundredth of a second, finishing fourth behind Fred Kerley of the USA, who clocked 9.81 seconds.

Akani Simbine ran the anchor leg of the men's 4x100m relay finals. Once again, he missed the chance to create history by a whisker, missing out on an Olympic gold medal by seven-hundredths of a second. However, the timing of 37.50 seconds earned South Africa a historic Olympic silver medal in the 4x100m relay race. This was the first time that a South African team had won this medal in this event in the history of the Summer Olympics.