The troubled Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games have arrived at their first major crisis, two weeks before the opening ceremony.
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“Electricity and water is not a good combination”, Kitty Chiller, the head of the Australian delegation, told reporters.
The Italian team also said some areas of the village were not ready and that they had been forced to hire workmen to carry out emergency repairs.
“I have never experienced a village in this state – or lack of state – of readiness at this point in time”, she said.
If all the obstacles in the Village are surmounted, the athletes will find a self-contained community planned to have all the services they need over the 17-day Olympiad.
This is the latest problem for the games, which have been hit by concern about the Zika virus, security threats, water pollution and severe budget cuts.
Mario Andrada, a spokesman for the local organizing committee, on Sunday said organizers are aware of the problems with some rooms, particularly affecting teams from Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.
“From the exterior it looks like the Hilton Hotel”, Tancred said.
Australia’s Chiller cited problems including “blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed wiring”. We’ve got cleaning problems.
“We made a decision to do a “stress test” where taps and toilets were simultaneously turned on in apartments on several floors to see if the system could cope once the athletes are in-house”.
Topping the list of the most decorated male and female competitors to make the team are swimming great Michael Phelps, whose 22 medals include 18 gold, and track and field athlete Allyson Felix, whose six medals include four gold. Some apartments had water running down the walls and “a strong smell of gas”, while stairwells were unlit and floors were in need of a thorough clean.
The Rio organising committee has sent in large teams of cleaners and fix staff, but could not say when the village would be open.
In the final stretch before the Games start August 5, more than 60,000 troops took positions across the city, part of an overall contingent of more than 85,000 soldiers, police and other security forces that will be deployed for the event at a time of heightened fears after recent massacres in Germany, France and the United States. It said fixing the problem “will take another few days”.
Chiller and AOC chief executive Fiona de Jong have been attending nightly meetings on the issue and repeatedly expressed their concerns to the local organising committee and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“Representatives from National Olympic Committees have been invited to observe the test”. “I am just about to put a kangaroo in front of their building so it can jump and make them feel at home”.
The 3,600 apartments are to be sold after the Olympics with some prices reaching $700,000. The development costs about $1.5 billion, built by the Brazilian billionaire Carlos Carvalho.
“Our team has had to get stuck in to get the job done”, Waddell said.
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“We are very pleased to arrive at this moment, which we can say marks the start of the Rio 2016 Games”, said Nuzman. For those coming in the next three days, alternative accommodation has been arranged.
