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The culprit in the Bruce the Emu abduction scandal that rocked the Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics has been exposed as a Slovakian Para alpine skier, who claims that holding the brass bird hostage in her bathroom brought her the good luck she needed to win three medals at the Games.
Alexandra Rexova – aided and abetted by teammates, including her sighted guides Matus Duris and Sophia Polak – held the Australian Paralympic Team mascot captive in her bathroom for two days until, fearing the long arm of the law, she backed down from her sinister plan.
But that was not before Australian officials instigated an international recovery operation to find Bruce, who has been the team’s mascot at each Games since Rio 2016 and survived a previous kidnapping at the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
Ms Rexova broke her silence after claiming bronze in the women’s slalom vision impaired, which was the 20-year-old from Bratislava’s third bronze medal of the campaign.
“We came to the Village and heard about the emu and the story about this tradition,” she said.
“And, you know, we are Slovakians and so we decided to steal it and hide it in our bathroom. So, we did it with Matus and another guide, Sophia – many people were there, so that was the night’s action.”
However, the shady Slovakian plan began to unravel when the chief architect of the heist realised Italian law enforcement was on the case.
“We had him one day, maybe two days, in the bathroom,” Ms Rexova said, adding that while in Slovakian custody, they stripped Bruce of his identity and renamed him ‘Stefan’.
“I opened the curtains and closed the door to the bathroom. There was nothing, it’s clear, you could see it’s clean.
“But then the policeman was outside and was trying to find it. I was like, OK, I was really stressed about it. We have to give it back. I was saying, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I didn’t want to do that!’”
Asked if she thought it was a fun tradition, Ms Rexova said: “It’s really nice. We didn’t want to damage it. We just wanted to continue in this tradition and have some fun and some adrenaline.”
However, she warned, “He brought me good luck. So, maybe in another Paralympics, you know what we are going to do.”
