RIO DE JANEIRO Aug 12 Olympic organisers cancelled diving training on Friday morning and shut the pool in an attempt to restore the water to its original blue colour.
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Officials at the Rio Games diving competition were scratching their heads Tuesday over the colour of the pool water, which had turned an odd green colour overnight.
“We probably failed to note that with more athletes, the water could be affected”, he said, adding that the pool’s alkaline levels were improving and should revert back to its usual blue colour soon.
Now on Friday it appears that the diving pool has been closed to training altogether – so as not to disturb the water and help it turn blue again.
“Diving pool is closed this morning”, Great Britain’s Tom Daley tweeted.
FINA conducted tests on the water quality and stressed that the pools do not pose a risk to the health and safety of the athletes. Athletes were not at risk, according to the statement. We reduced immediately the quantity.
Dr. Stephanie Henson explained that algae are what’s causing the actual color, explaining that the ” balance of chemicals in the pool ” not being quite right could “trigger the bloom” of algae, turning the pool green. He conceded that some athletes were bothered by the water, but said that was a result of efforts to get the water clean. “We really weren’t focused on that and just focused more on giving it one dive at a time, plain and simple”.
“Chemistry is not an exact science”, he said. We need the water to be still so we can clean it more easily and faster. Whether it’s Michael Phelps still dazzling us with gold medal victories, Katie Ledecky trouncing her competition or, yes, pools turning green.
Heavy rain in recent days had made it more hard to fine-tune the levels of chlorine in the open-air pool accurately, he added.
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“The algae makes the water look green”.
