If you weren't planning on watching the extravaganza that is the Olympics opening ceremony in London, maybe think again.
Forget the multi-million-dollar show, the global superstars and the thousands of performers — an Australian gold medal-winning shooter has lost a bet that could see him turn up in a mankini.
Russell Mark, who won gold in the Double Trap in Atlanta, had said he would don the embarrassingly revealing one-piece swimwear if Australian Football League team Carlton were beaten by underdogs St. Kilda on Monday night.
They were indeed beaten.
Asked on Tuesday if reports he had made the bet were true, Mark told 3AW radio station, "I actually did make that statement. I still can't believe they [St. Kilda] did it. Anyway a lot of people might think that a mankini might look better than the uniform they've nominated for us so I'm not sure it's such a bad thing."
The official Australian uniform for the Games has come under fire from some commentators, who have likened it to a lawn bowls outfit.
Mark, 48, already has a strategy in place to avoid his punishment. He laughingly said he may ask his fellow Olympian wife Lauryn Ogilvie to wear a mankini, infamously paraded by Sacha Baron Cohen's comic character Borat, in his place.
The London Games will take place from July 27 to August 12.
