“Mine’s the red one”: Baggage carousel mayhem as hundreds of identical Olympic bags arrive at Heathrow

Baggage reclaim is this way…
Baggage reclaim is this way…
Image: Reuters/Peter Nicholls
By
We may earn a commission from links on this page.

Like first time travelers, the British Olympic team thought it’d be fun for its entire delegation to the 2016 Games in Rio to carry matching red luggage.

Fun? Yes. Extremely confusing? Also yes.

Three hundred and twenty athletes and support staff out of the 900-strong team flew from Rio de Janeiro to London on Wednesday (Aug. 23)—and were greeted by a sea of red on the conveyer belt at Heathrow Airport. Neither British Airways, Heathrow, nor Team GB could say exactly how many items of red luggage there were on the flight, but a team spokesperson did confirm that all 900 members of the delegation had been issued with matching luggage sets, making for a total of 3,000 red bags (though, mercifully, not all on one journey).

The fact that the team returned home with their best medal haul in over a century seemed to take the edge off any moments of baggage carousel chaos.