The first 34 horses that will take part in the Rio 2016 Games have arrived in Brazil and settled at the Olympic Equestrian Center that will host the three equestrian disciplines – eventing, jumping and dressage.
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Rio 2016 organizers and the Australian Olympic Committee are already conducting an investigation into the cause of the fire which came hard on the heels of the Australians complaining about multiple facets of the accommodation at the athletes’ village.
Smoke filled stairwells in the lower floors of the building and, because of silenced fire alarms, officials had to knock on room doors to evacuate team members. No one was hurt and there was no serious damage.
She continued, “There’s a lot of rubbish around the place which a lot of countries have been talking about for the last few days, left from contractors, left from workers”.
Chiller had initially refused to let her team stay in the Village, but moved athletes in this week after organizers deployed a task force of 600 workers to tackle repairs. The athletes’ village is a non smoking venue.
Chiller said the fire evidenced her initial concerns.
The AOC issued a statement about Friday’s incident, confirming that an emergency response plan was activated and “approximately 100 athletes and officials were evacuated in an orderly and controlled fashion”.
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes on Wednesday met Australian delegation head Kitty Chiller and apologized to dozens of athletes for the slipshod preparations.
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He added: “They’ve got their building now, and I hope things go well from now on”.
