Speaking at the end of the World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, where swimming finals usually finished around 7.30pm local time, global Swimming Federation (FINA) executive director Cornel Marculescu said they had initially been against the decision.
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Yet the U.S. team won 29 medals (13 gold) at the previous worlds, in 2013, without Phelps, who was retired from the sport at the time.
Australian swimmers didn’t medal in any of those events in Kazan, and will head to Rio next year confident of at least matching the target of “five or six golds” unveiled by Olympic chef de mission Kitty Chiller last week, co-inciding with 12 months to go to the opening ceremony in Rio de Janiero.
Although the United States team could not confirm that the water made the rowers sick and said that the rowers took special precautions to stay healthy, team doctors suspect the quality of the water caused the illnesses.
Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, the team’s physician, said she believes the symptoms are consistent with coming into contact with the contaminated water, although she did not rule out food or drinking water as the source of the illness.
“It’s why we do a test event, so that we can correct things and make sure everybody understands everything for next year, and Rio has delivered on that”.
“We took a number of additional measures [in addition to pre-travel vaccines/medications] such as protecting water bottles from exposure to the water of the lagoa [lagoon], covered all open scratches or sores, and washed with antiseptic soap after every session”.
“We are working on getting our players time to get them bigger with strength and running fitness especially after returning back from a very long season marked by a lot of celebrations”. But he also said there was much work to do to “scale the venue up” for next year, “to ensure the standard of facilities, services and general experience for our human and equine athlete is of a true Olympic standard in 2016”.
Ledecky was the one U.S. staff member with extra medals than Cordes’ 4. It showed dangerously high levels of viruses from sewage in all Olympic venues.
The results of the AP’s water quality analysis, which also included samples from competition areas near the Marina da Gloria in Guanabara Bay and Copacabana Beach, revealed high counts of active and infectious human adenoviruses.
These are viruses that are known to cause digestive and respiratory illnesses, including explosive diarrhea and vomiting, but can also in rarer cases lead to more serious heart, brain and other diseases, such as hepatitis A. “I’ve kept medalling at events, but never quite won them so to actually do it was huge and that is a huge confidence boost as we get closer to the Games”. “The equestrian venue is one of the best I’ve seen and hopefully it will keep going after the Games as part of the legacy, not just for Brazil but for the whole continent”. “It’s an IOC event and we have to respect it. We have to adapt….”
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“I think I’m starting to become quite comfortable with the place and the waters”.
