Aussie Olympian Might Have to Wear ‘Mankini,’ A La Borat, To London Games

A bet can be lots of fun, especially if you happen to come out on the wining side, but when you lose, the fun goes away awfully fast.

Perhaps that was what Russell Mark, an Australian Olympic gold medalist in shooting, was thinking when he made his particular wager.

Mark was so confident that the Australian rules football league team he roots for, Carlton, would beat St. Kilda, that if Carlton somehow lost promised to wear the one-piece ‘mankini’ made famous by Sacha Baron Cohen in the film ‘Borat’ to the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London this summer.

Mark is a world-class athlete who has won both gold and silver medals in previous Olympics for shooting. But he’s not a young and lithe runway model who would look good in such revealing garb. He’s a fairly stocky man, in his late 40s. Imagine him in a crowd of thousands of global athletes in nothing but a brightly colored mankini. What a sight that would be.

Mark has stated that he was probably drunk when he made the bet. The folks who run the Australian Olympic Committee are hoping, without a doubt, that this is one wager Mark has no intention of honoring. For our part, we really hope he does. It would surely be an Olympic first, and he would definitely go down in the history books.

[Reuters]