A pair of Egyptian wrestlers, Abdou Omar Abdou Ahmed and Saleh Emara, lost their first round matches in the 66-kilogram and 96-kilogram men's freestyle categories by forfeit after failing to show up for their matches on time.
Ahmed was scheduled to wrestle Devid Safaryan of Armenia, while Emara was slated to face George Gogshelidze of Georgia, both matches at 8:30am.
However, the two players showed up four hours late believing that the match would start at 1pm based the schedule of the previous seven days of Olympic wrestling. All matches on the final day of the Olympics were pushed up to make room for the closing ceremony.
"They thought they were wrestling at 1pm (GMT) like normal but because of the closing ceremony they changed the timing to 8:30am (GMT) and the team didn't know about it," an Egyptian team spokesman said.
"It was in the booklet but they didn't see it and because of that they were a little bit late."
"We know it is our mistake. We are investigating the matter now. We are calling the administrator to see who is responsible. They should have known."
All the other wrestlers competing for the last two medals turned up on time, a venue spokeswoman said.
The sport's governing body said there was nothing it could do to help the pair.
"We did everything possible to give them all the information they need but it is up to the coach and the country's delegation to make sure their people know all the details," said a spokesman for FILA, the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles.
"I am sorry that they could not take part but if they don't come to the venue on time, they can't take part."
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