Olympic 'snow angel' outed by parents

Last updated 10:25 31/07/2012

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Nick MacAvoy woke up to discover that his scantily-clad, snow angel antics on a London rooftop during the Olympics has made headline news on the other side of the world.

It's not the Olympics story anyone expected to triumph over the rest, but MacAvoy's snow angel, caught on camera during a road race on Saturday (local time), was yesterday the most-read story on Stuff.

MacAvoy refused to give an interview this morning, saying media would have to buy a video-interview from his company, Newsflare.

We asked whether anyone knows who this mysterious near-naked, snow angel-making man is and heard from two people who know him well yesterday - his parents Antonia and Tim.

"I suppose it's a good thing he had some clothing on," Tim MacAvoy said, adding that his son is 29 "and should know better".

Tim said his son had seen the helicopters hover over his Fulham flat before, so thought he'd give them something to look at when he heard them approaching again on Saturday.

While filming the men's road race, which New Zealand cyclist Jack Bauer took part in, the helicopter also caught a view of something else.

Now thousands of others have also seen MacAvoy in his speedos making a snow angel (with no snow) while lying on a New Zealand flag.

"He would have done it as a joke and I'm sure it's turned out far bigger than he ever would have thought," his father said.

"He'll probably wake and have a bit of a chuckle about it."

Originally from Auckland, MacAvoy has lived in London for two years and is the head of technology at Newsflare, a video sharing enterprise.

Known as Chi, he took the credit on social news website reddit.

"This is me. I am so proud my fellow Redditors," he said.

"I was initially disappointed that I didn't get any UK coverage when I rewatched the BBC coverage but I'm very pleased to see my sunbathing went noticed!

"It is a New Zealand flag and I'm a Kiwi. Good luck to our Olympians!!"

There was plenty of pride in New Zealand's effort in the race as well, with Bauer finishing 10th in a bunch sprint for the bronze medal, just 8 seconds off Gold medallist Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan.

Now, back to the sports.

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