Olympic team instantly disqualified from race before it began after making embarrassing mistake
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images
An athletic couple due to marry next month got the worst send off from the Olympics in Paris after being disqualified before the race even began
Team GB athletes John Gimson and Anna Burnet looked like they were living the dream - their marriage is next month and they got the chance to leave the 2024 Paris Olympics with a medal for their country.
The sailors arrived in Paris hoping to replicate their success in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where they were able to go away with a silver medal in mixed multihull sailing event.
But the pair admitted to being ‘heartbroken’ after realizing an error in the double-points medal race had cost them their chances at the podium in the event this year.
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The duo were judged to have been over the line when the starting horn sounded.
According to the race rules, they needed to go back and perform a 360 degree turn before restarting the race.
However, the pair were unaware of their error and continued to race on, only to be informed that they had been disqualified by the umpire.
The pair spoke to the BBC after getting back on land and were visibly upset about how things had turned out.
Gimson said: "[This has been] the most brutal way to lose because it is so out of our control. I’m so proud of this week, how we sailed.
"To be honest, I felt so in control of ourselves going into that start, [we knew] what the plan was, where the Kiwis were... and yeah.
"We made one mistake and it’s cost us an Olympic medal so you can imagine we’re pretty broken."
Burnet echoed her soon-to-be husband’s sentiments but also offered an optimistic outlook going forward.
The Scotswoman said: “In that moment it’s devastating, it’s a bad dream but we can just be proud of what we have done.
"We have been on the podium almost every single regatta this campaign. We are Olympic silver medalists from Tokyo.
"You know, that is sport, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and today it didn’t.
"We are so lucky that we get to do this together. Sport has been brutal but life goes on and we’ll get married and life will be great. It’s brutal but that’s all it is."
Now, that's a brilliant attitude to have, despite the result.
Over on social media, fans have also been offering words of encouragement to the athlete couple and have insisted they have done Great Britain proud regardless.