In probably one of the least surprising happenings of 2016, things in Rio proved to be pretty terrible when athletes arrived at the Olympic Village this weekend.
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Also, at least our landlord doesn’t insult us to the press when we complain about problems in our apartments.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Rio organizing committee sent an emergency group of cleaners and fix staff to address the issues, but as of now offer no date when the problems would be fixed.
“We are going to make the Australians feel at home here, I’m on the point of putting a kangaroo out front to jump for them”, the mayor told reporters on Sunday. The problem? The Olympics started just a year and a half after the war ended.
The AOC chef de mission Kitty Chiller claimed that the facilities were uninhabitable and that Great Britain and New Zealand contingencies concurred with her assessment.
The run-up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio hasn’t been good.
Organizers for South America’s first Olympic Games built 31 17-story buildings, but only 12 had been given the green light by Monday morning while another eight were in the process of receiving a full safety certification, Rio2016 spokesman Mario Andrada told Reuters.
Athletes are arriving in Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics, and have been greeted at the Athletes’ Village with gas leaks, power outages, and “a small fire”.
Chiller said that the Australian team will be living in nearby hotels until the problems are fixed. As of Sunday, July 24, the Australians who had arrived still refused to move in, instead staying at a hotel. The important thing is that everything will be resolved before the Games, without disturbing the athletes’.
For the first time ever, a team of refugees will participate under the Olympic flag in the Games, which the United Nations hails as a powerful symbol of inclusion and shared humanity.
“We were disappointed the village wasn’t as ready as it might have been when we arrived and it hasn’t been easy”.
The compound contains tennis courts, soccer fields and seven swimming pools, topped off by a massive dining-kitchen compound that’s as large as three football fields.
The towers cost a shade under $1 billion to construct, and the construction firm planned to sell the apartments after the Olympics concluded.
“Our team has had to get stuck in to get the job done”, Waddell said.
Chiller said the AOC ran a “stress test” in which it turned on several taps and showers on different floors as a way to gauge the overall competency of the village when operating at full capacity.
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Suffice it to say, the International Olympic Committee will be making its best efforts to solve the issues in the athletes’ village quickly and quietly before more countries boycott the facility.
