Louis Smith has received an apology from Virgin Trains East Coast, after tweeting that a waiter asked “the only two black passengers” on one of their services “if they were meant to be in first class”.
The Olympian was travelling on one of the company’s trains on Thursday evening when he revealed on Twitter the man next to him had challenged the waiter on his actions.
He wrote:
In an additional tweet, Louis explained that when his fellow passenger had approached the train manager, they said “it was wrong and apologised for the man’s [waiter] behaviour”.
“The waiter isn’t allowed to check tickets anyway but can ask if you’re seated in 1st class!!” he added.
Virgin Trains East Coast then replied to this tweet, writing: “Hi Louis. Please accept my sincerest apologies for this.
“I have spoken to the Train Manager on this service at length about what has happened and there will be a complaint logged and investigated. ^BG.”
HuffPost UK has contacted Virgin Trains East Coast for further comment.
Louis won his first Olympic medal in 2008 and went on to compete in every Olympic games after that, winning another podium place at each.
In the time between, he’s popped up on handful of reality TV shows competing on the 2012 series of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and judging gymnastics show ‘Tumble’.