--- title: Rio 2016 Olympics: Matching Red Bag Baggage Claim Fail description: Team Great Britain gave their athletes matching luggage which probably seemed like a good idea initially, but proved to be confusing at the baggage claim. canonical: https://time.com/4464699/rio-2016-olympics-britain-baggage-claim/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-24T17:36:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:48.870Z og:title: All These Olympic Athletes Can't Tell Which Bag Is Theirs og:description: Mine's the red one! og:url: https://time.com/4464699/rio-2016-olympics-britain-baggage-claim/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5cd9ac0f129ba82f/6988a37cf887dc4de4e972b9/team-great-britain-olympics-luggage.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Team-Great-Britain-Olympics-luggage og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: All These Olympic Athletes Can't Tell Which Bag Is Theirs twitter:description: Mine's the red one! twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5cd9ac0f129ba82f/6988a37cf887dc4de4e972b9/team-great-britain-olympics-luggage.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # All These Olympic Athletes Had Identical Matching Bags So Baggage Claim Was Impossible > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 24, 2016 5:36 PM UTC  (Credit: Team Great Britain/Twitter)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 24, 2016 5:36 PM UTC While there’s been plenty of buzz about the [matching outfits and uniforms](http://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/best-outfits-uniforms-opening-ceremony-rio-olympics-2016-10503072/) that each country’s team debuted at the [2016 Rio Olympics](http://time.com/4460750/rio-2016-olympics-best-moments-neymar-phelps-biles-ledecky/), [Great Britain decided to take it one step further](http://time.com/4458255/rio-2016-olympics-triathlon/) by giving their athletes matching luggage in a bright shade of red that screamed, “Rule Brittannia!” to any and all who passed by. In the spirit of the [intense team unity and hyper nationalism](http://time.com/4456943/2016-olympics-rio-games-politics/) touted by each of the countries at the games, this probably seemed like a great idea, but in the waning afterglow at the baggage claim back at Heathrow, it probably seemed less clever as Team Great Britain was surrounded by more red than [the Starks at the Red Wedding](http://time.com/4351789/game-of-thrones-red-wedding-return/). While the 320 British athletes who participated in the games looked for their bags, some took a break to give us updates on the situation. Rower Matt Langridge found the task of finding his luggage more daunting than the games. > [](https://twitter.com/matt%5Flangridge8/status/768026973708877824) Windsurfer Nick Dempsey found the humor in the situation. > [](https://twitter.com/nickdempsey1/status/768020957915123712) While sailors Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark made no secret of their impression of the situation. > [](https://twitter.com/470Girls/status/768020342182993921) Haven’t heard this one before, Alex Gregory. > [](https://twitter.com/AlexGregoryGB/status/768020640062373888) So. Many. Red. Bags. > [](https://twitter.com/Bdownie/status/768024986145660928) Even the official Team Great Britain Twitter account got in on the joke. > [](https://twitter.com/TeamGB/status/768021797119913984) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4464699/rio-2016-olympics-britain-baggage-claim/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4464699/rio-2016-olympics-britain-baggage-claim/"},"headline":"All These Olympic Athletes Had Identical Matching Bags So Baggage Claim Was Impossible","datePublished":"2016-08-24T17:36:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:48.870Z","description":"\"Mine's the red one!\"","url":"https://time.com/4464699/rio-2016-olympics-britain-baggage-claim/","keywords":["Newsfeed","olympics","entertainment","Great Britain","Summer Olympics","2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics","Rio 2016 Olympics","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5cd9ac0f129ba82f/6988a37cf887dc4de4e972b9/team-great-britain-olympics-luggage.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5cd9ac0f129ba82f/6988a37cf887dc4de4e972b9/team-great-britain-olympics-luggage.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Team-Great-Britain-Olympics-luggage","caption":"","creditText":"(Credit: Team Great Britain/Twitter)","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4464699/rio-2016-olympics-britain-baggage-claim/","name":"All These Olympic Athletes Had Identical Matching Bags So Baggage Claim Was Impossible"}}]}] ```