UK India's Olympic team abuzz about mystery woman ...

Published: July 29, 2012

UK India's Olympic team abuzz about mystery woman


Photo: APю


Photo: AP

LONDON (AP) — A mysterious woman in red has caused an international incident at the London Olympics.

Indian officials are mystified — and miffed — after
an unknown young woman managed to march with the country's athletes and
officials during the opening ceremony Friday night. Games organizers on
Sunday downplayed security concerns around the unscripted moment,
saying the interloper was a ceremony cast member and had screened before
entering the Olympic Park.

Images from Friday's ceremony showed a young woman
in turquoise jeans and a red jacket marching alongside Indian flag
bearer Sushil Kumar at the head of the delegation of 40 athletes in
bright yellow and navy blue.

"We are totally dazed," Indian press atttache
Harpal Singh Bedi said Sunday. "How can a person without any
accreditation walk past?" Indian officials said they had no idea who the
woman was. The country's Deccan Chronicle newspaper said she was likely
Madhura Nagendra, a graduate student from the southern city of
Bangalore who had been living in London.

The newspaper said she had displayed her Olympic
passes on her Facebook page, which used the name Madhura Honey. It said
the page was later deactivated. The case of the ceremony's mystery woman
dominated Indian media's coverage of the opening of the games.

"Who's That Girl?" asked the front page of The
Hindustan Times. "Leaky London: Unaccounted presence in march past,"
said a headline in the Times of India. The newspaper said the mystery
woman had "brazenly gatecrashed the party, raising security concerns and
adding to the anger over India's blink-and-miss appearance on global TV
screens."

Bedi said India's acting chef de mission, P.K.M.
Raja, had sent games organizers an official letter of complaint about
the intrusion. "I think this is definitely a security lapse," Bedi said.
"You cannot have flawless security everywhere, but this is not
flawless."

But London organizing chief Sebastian Coe insisted
the woman had not posed a threat to the ceremony. He told reporters she
was "a cast member who clearly got slightly over-excited." Some 10,000
volunteers performed alongside professional musicians, actors and
dancers in director Danny Boyle's ceremony.

Coe stressed the woman had been screened to get
into Olympic Stadium so there had been no security breach. "Don't run
away with the idea that she walked in off the street," Coe said. Coe
said games officials "will have our own discussions" about the incident.

Associated Press Writer Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi contributed to this report.
Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

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