Organizers said on Saturday they would spend 10 hours draining and replacing the water in the water polo pool, which has gone from green to a cloudy blue. Andrada said the pool would be drained and replaced with almost a million gallons of clear water before the start of the synchronized swimming event on Sunday.
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‘We are going to grab the water from the warm-up pool, drain the water out of the competition pool and insert the water from the warm-up pool into the competition pool.
Olympics organizers battled an array of persistent problems as the Games entered its second week on Saturday, from a lurid green diving pool to competitors taken to the wrong venue, and a long-distance swimming pontoon swept away by the waves. The nearby polo and synchronized swimming pool began its transformation on Wednesday.
Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada said the “radical measure” was necessary to ensure visibility for athletes competing in upcoming synchronized swimming events.
Red-faced Rio Olympics organisers anxiously waited for the diving water to turn back from a nervy green to classic blue as a lack of chemicals was revealed as the cause of the colour changes.
“Of course it is an embarrassment because we are hosting the Olympic Games”, Andrada said.
“It should be light blue, transparent, and also things could have been done better, quickly”, Andrada said. “We learned painful lessons the hard way”. Officials tried to use chemicals to make it clearer, but it didn’t work.
‘We have been trying to clean the pool for four days, and obviously it’s not going as fast as we want it to, ‘ said Nascimento.
This operation is expected to be completed by 7am tomorrow morning.
“The water in the warm-up pool is in ideal condition”, Nascimento said.
Officials have insisted that the health of the athletes using the pools is not at risk.
“Today was pretty gross”, Australia’s Maddison Keeney said after Saturday’s competition.
“You’re standing on the stairs and you can’t see your feet, one and half metres down”.
“I’ve never had a pool like this ever before”.
There were plenty of snarky posts on social media.
This included his memorable answer that “chemistry is not an exact science” when asked for an explanation. The dirty water removed from the green pool will be disposed at the city’s sewage system, which is already under scrutiny for waste being pumped into waters used for rowing, canoeing, sailing, triathlon, and open water swimming.
“This is probably the only problem we were unable to solve quickly”, he said.
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Some water polo players complained about itchy eyes, while German diver Stephen Feck commented on Facebook yesterday that the whole venue smelt like “somebody has fart”.
