An autistic teenage Special Olympics athlete who vanished from Los Angeles International Airport was found on Monday afternoon, hours after another missing competitor turned up safe in Northern California.
Los Angeles Police Department officer Drake Madison said 15-year-old Shion Isimel of the Ivory Coast has been located, but provided no further details.
Security camera footage showed the French-speaking teen, who competed in table tennis, wearing a black shirt leaving the airport at about 6am. He was initially seen wearing an orange shirt with “Special Olympics” written on it.
Isimel had his passport with him, airport police spokesman Rob Pedregon said. Part of his delegation had already left, but others were still in Los Angeles.
Earlier, an Albanian athlete who disappeared from the Games turned up safe in a community on the east side of the San Francisco Bay.
Andi Gusmari, 44, went to the Hayward Police Department on his own at about 2am on Monday and used a lobby telephone to contact a dispatcher, Hayward Police Department Lieutenant Guy Jakub said.
Gusmari, who had identification with him, was safe and comfortable, but police were not able to communicate very well with him because of his speech disability, Jakub said.
Gusmari, a bowling competitor, disappeared from the University of Southern California sometime after 8:30pm on Saturday.
Gusmari apparently took a bus to Northern California, said Jeff Carr, chief operating officer of the Special Olympics World Games Organizing Committee.
A Special Olympics staff member was sent to help Gusmari return to Los Angeles and then to Albania.
About 6,500 athletes from around the world took part in the Special Olympics, which used venues in the Los Angeles area.
The participants on Sunday said goodbye in an emotional closing ceremony at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the centerpiece of the 1932 and 1984 Olympics.
The disappearances of Isimel and Gusmari are not the first to occur during a Special Olympics competition.
Three athletes and a coach from Niger went missing from the Special Olympics games in Ireland in 2003. Two Moroccan athletes and two Dominican Republic athletes disappeared from the games in North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham area in 1999.
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