Eyebrows were first raised on Tuesday when the water changed colour in the adjacent pool, where the women’s 10m synchronised platform final was taking place.
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In a statement to Global News, organizers confirmed that the pool was closed, but noted that the closure would not affect Friday’s scheduled diving events.
American diver Abby Johnston, who is competing on the springboard, said she showed up for her warmup, only to learn the pool was shut down without any notice.
A second pool turned green on Wednesday at the Rio Olympics 2016.
According to FINA, the waters transformed to green from blue due to the depletion of several water treatment chemicals in the tank, causing athletes difficulties to locate their partners after a dive. Making athletes dive into that water is hopefully off the cards. Whether it’s Michael Phelps still dazzling us with gold medal victories, Katie Ledecky trouncing her competition or, yes, pools turning green.
The executive director of swimming’s world governing body FINA told Reuters that the problem may have come from a faulty filter or problematic water quality.
However, when the pool finally opened for practice, it still appeared to be the same shade of green. “Obviously, the people in charge of maintaining the pool and of checking could and should have done more intensive tests”.
“I think it’s pretty normal for an outdoor pool, so it wasn’t a big deal for us”, said Pandelela Rinong, who won silver for Malaysia along with Cheong Jun Hoong. “Some things, as you can see, went longer than expected”.
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.
“Athletes are performing dry training this morning in Maria Lenk”.
“We have treated both pools during the night and the alkalinity levels have already improved”.
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“We probably failed to note that with more athletes the water could be affected in different ways”, he said. “The most we’ve ever had is about 8,200, and it has never turned green”.
