FedEx slammed for losing U.S. Olympic ice dancer’s costumes just one week before Milan games start
Less than a week before the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo begin, a major international shipping company is under fire for misplacing an important piece of one Olympian’s equipment.
American ice dancer Christina Carreira had her custom-made costumes lost by FedEx in the days leading up to the competition beginning in a matter of days. She is set to compete with ice dance partner Anthony Ponomarenko.
Carreira’s costume designer, Lisa McKinnon, publicly called out the logistics company in an Instagram post on Thursday – tagging their official account while venting her frustration.
‘It’s like pulling teeth to get answers from calling FedEx!!!’ she captioned her post.
‘We’re heartbroken and so incredibly disappointed with you! We really really need you to come through for us right now!!
‘We have an Olympic costume that has allegedly been ‘stuck’ at the memphis fedex facility since Sunday.’
FedEx was slammed for losing the ice dancing costumes of Olympian Christina Carreira
Carreira is set to compete for the United States with partner Anthony Ponomarenko
It’s likely that the delay was a result of poor weather that wreaked havoc on the eastern US from January 24-26 – with Tennessee getting hit particularly hard.
However, McKinnon clarified that while she understands the horrible conditions may have slowed the shipment, ‘It is not however the weather delay that’s the main issue for us in this situation, it’s the fact that they don’t know where the package is.’
McKinnon’s designs were shipped out on the 24th and were supposed to arrive in Italy just two days later. But, it did not get there in time – leading to the inquest and subsequent call for help.
‘It’s now Thursday and the skaters are literally on their way to the Olympics in Milan without the costume!!!’ McKinnon continued in her post from January 29.
‘We’ve been calling every day and have been told it will be on the plane and delivered ‘tomorrow.’ Still no movement nor actual update.’
McKinnon added, ‘I’m reaching out to you all, my amazing followers, to see if anyone has any direct connections to anyone working at the main FedEx facility in Memphis that can help us????’
The company did end up replying to the post, commenting ‘We want to help out and are looking into this!’ Carreira also commented, saying ‘Please help!! @fedex.’
The 25-year-old Canadian-born ice dancer made her own plea to Instagram, saying, ‘We’ve been calling since Monday, everyone at FedEx has been extremely unhelpful, my package has been stuck in Memphis since Monday, they’ve been telling us that it will be put on the next flight for the last 3 days.’
Carreira shared a sketch of the design of one costume designed by Lisa McKinnon
Fortunately, the costumes appear to have been found and are on their way to Milan
‘There’s been no movement, and no one seems to be able to help.’
Eventually, after plenty of confusion, frustration and concern, the costumes appear to have been discovered.
Carreira posted a celebratory message to her account saying ‘they found it’ with a crying emoji.
McKinnon explained their positive change in fortune: ‘Our small, but mighty, skating community has come together and through a friend of a friend within US Figure Skating, whom had a colleague in Memphis that knew someone that worked at the hub and that could physically go find the package, it was found late last night and is en route for delivery today! Thank you!!!’
