Rio’s mayor and the Australian Olympic team buried the hatchet Wednesday in a row that started over shambolic lodgings in the athletes’ Village and veered into a freaky controversy over kangaroos.
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The Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, responded to Australian’s claims, reportedly saying to localmedia, “I nearly feel like putting a kangaroo to jump up and down in front of their building”, to make them feel at “home”.
The British Olympic team has declared itself happy with the state of the athletes’ Olympic Village after delegations from Australia and Argentina voiced concerns.
“Due to a variety of problems in the Village, including gas, electricity and plumbing I have decided that no Australian Team member will move into our allocated building”, Australian Team Chef de Mission Kitty Chiller said in a statement.
Rio organizers have been scrambling to clear all of the buildings in the village after the Australian team could not move into their quarters.
Flanked by the Australian Mens Hockey Team, Chiller acknowledged the gesture and efforts of the people of Rio and provided Paes with an official Australia Team shirt and boxing kangaroo mascot.
The Rio 2016 Olympics will open in 10 days, with the first football matches coming two days before.
The village will accommodate about 18,000 athletes and staff with a dining room serving 60,000 meals daily.
Chiller said another 50 athletes were to touch down on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEST), taking the total number on the ground in Rio to 62.
The head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, who arrived in Rio on Wednesday, played down concerns over the city’s readiness. The crunch should come next week in the run-up to the opening ceremony on August 5.
Stress tests, which should have been completed months ago, are less than halfway finished because the 17-storey buildings were completed late and utilities had only been recently connected. Commenting on his visit, President Bach said: “The Olympic Village will be fantastic”.
Those traveling to Brazil for the Olympics face a tiny risk of getting infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which can cause birth defects in pregnant women, U.S. researchers said Monday.
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New images that emerged from the village showed water leaking down walls, exposed wires hanging from the ceiling and broken tiles and plaster left on the bathroom floor as work in the apartments still remained incomplete. It is the responsibility of the organizing committee to deliver a safe and well-functioning village … “And we’ll stop at nothing to ensure that we get that”.
