However, organisers are happy with the progress of the green-tinged diving pool at the venue, dubbed “The Swamp” by competitors.
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“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 Gustavo Nascimento, Rio 2016 director of venue management.
The main diving pool at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Stadium turned green Monday night.
“We’re moving to a more radical approach with the water”, Rio 2016 organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada told journalists. “This was an issue we could not solve quickly [but] we need to have water looking the way it should look”.
German coach Lutz Buschkow called the conditions in the diving pool not “Olympics-worthy”, questioning its cleanliness by noting that the water now also appeared to be coated in something.
FINA made changes to the schedule so the swimmers could compete and Andrada said bus drivers had been instructed to use the full name of the site to avoid confusion in future.
The nearby diving pool continued to be used for competition on Saturday despite athletes claiming the water was worse than ever.
“Today was pretty gross”.
So what caused the green water in the first place? Now they can’t seem to get the green out of the diving pool water.
Officials stressed that the water’s color, while abnormal, posed no threat to the athletes. “We learned a painful lesson the hard way”.
Brazilian officials claim contractor mistakenly dumped hydrogen peroxide into the pool late last week, which reacted with the chlorine.
“I have never seen anything like it before”.
Brazil, left and Australia players sing an anthem prior to their women’s water polo preliminary round match at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016.
That problem has lingered into Friday and moved to the diving pool.
“Chemistry is not an exact science”, he said.
Nevertheless, more athletes playing in the neighboring pool complained that the water stung their eyes.
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He explained that the changing color of the pool was the result of increased alkaline levels, much like an aquarium can turn green when not monitored properly.
