Days after turning a concerning shade of green, Olympic officials have closed the diving pool in Rio de Janeiro.
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The pool turned an emerald green earlier this week, becoming the subject of numerous jokes and creating a headache for the organisers.
Diving competition at the Rio Olympics is expected to continue on schedule despite officials closing the pool in the morning to speed up treatment of its green water.
On Tuesday, the blue waters of the diving pool at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre mysteriously turned a swamp green overnight. Rio 2016 said: ” TomDaley1994 As approved by fina89, diving training is cancelled b/c the water must be still for the pool to return to its blue color”.
Organisers added the pool will also be reopened for training at the venue this evening.
The worldwide swimming body FINA said water tanks at the pool ran out of some chemicals used in the treatment process.
A statement from Rio 2016 organizers says water tests were conducted and there is no risk to athletes. Andrada and FINA said there is no risk to athletes competing in either pool.
“We have learnt that chemistry is not an exact science”, Mario Andrada said.
Now, Olympic officials are saying that extensive testing shows that a chemical imbalance caused by too many people using the water was the reason for the color change, the New York Times reported. “We probably failed to note that with more athletes the water could be affected”.
The diving and water polo pools are part of the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre, a permanent facility which opened in 2007. This was a result that the first reaction when we saw the water turning green was to use one of the chemicals – chlorine – that is very common in swimming pools. “Now that the water’s green it makes it slightly easier to see where you are”, he told ITV News. Riley said his group strongly advised against swimming in green water.
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But the divers have seemingly not had any issues, at least publicly.
