Competitors were performing dry training in the venue on Friday, using an area where divers can practise using trampolines, platforms and harnesses.
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“The moment you want to do some workout and the pool is closed”, he posted. “The whole venue smells like somebody has fart [ed]”.
“Hopefully that means we haven’t been diving in anything too bad the last couple of days!” he said in a Tweet.
Officials have tried to make it clear that the pool was safe for use and that it was only closed because the water needs to remain still in order to change back to blue.
Despite promises to restore the color of the pool at the Maria Lenk Aquatic center by Wednesday evening, organizers were still trying to adjust its chemical levels, a spokesman for Rio 2016 told a news conference.
“We have learned that chemistry is not an exact science”, Andrada said. Andrada said they’ve been working with local health officials and FINA, the world governing body for aquatic sports, to find the proper balance of chemicals to return it to the classic blue expected in world competitions.
Andrada said they made the decision to cancel training because few divers were trying to practice and a light rain was making it hard for the water to sit still.
Some athletes have theories about what turned the pool green; they’ve suggested that it could be green ink from the Rio 2016 banner underwater, a fake tan washing off, urine, metallic residue from the pipes, or plain old algae. Meanwhile, the adjacent pool used for water polo and has also started to turn a murky green colour.
German diver Stephan Feck has described the stench coming out of Rio’s “green pool” – which has been shut down for maintenance – as smelling like a “fart”.
Worldwide swimming body FINA said it supported the decision to stop training and that competition, a preliminary round for the women’s three-metre springboard, would start on schedule.
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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.
