“We felt that our building was not safe, because of a combination of plumbing and electrical issues”, the Australian Chef de Mission Kitty Chiller told journalists, adding that a stress test had been carried out – opening taps and turning on lights simultaneously – and discovered “significant leakages”.
Advertisement
The newly built village will host more than 18,000 athletes, officials, staff and volunteers over the August 5-21 Olympics and the September 7-18 Paralympics.
Chiller said she would reassess the situation this week.
Andrada said: “We have 630 men working 24 hours a day to fix problems in the Olympic Village and to deliver flawlessly before the end of the week, probably on Thursday”.
“We want them to feel at home here”, Eduardo Paes said.
“Some (countries) are comfortable for their teams to move in, and I envy them”, said Chiller on Sunday.
Paes sarcastically said he was tempted to put “a kangaroo jumping outside” the Australians’ building to make them happy.
450,000 condoms are to be distributed among the athletes as the village starts welcoming the Olympians this Sunday, a move that has been met with unwarranted surprise by worldwide sports observers. “I have arranged a little present for the mayor as well”, Chiller said.
Chiller stressed her comments had not been an attack on Brazil.
Under a worst-case scenario, just three to 37 of the up to 500,000 people expected to go to Rio de Janeiro for the games, which start next month, could be expected to come down with Zika, said the report by the Yale University School of Public Health.
“We’re reviewing our work to show that even with the games about to begin there have been no significant advances in this area”, the source said.
“Anyone that we have contracted at this point in time, or any altered arrangements as in extra accommodations at hotels, we are paying for that at the moment”, she said. “(But) Although the organisation has said it will finish all its repairs, we can not take risks”.
The head of Argentina’s Olympic committee, Gerardo Werthein, was quoted by Clarin daily saying that out of five floors reserved for the country, “two are not habitable” and that his team had sought alternative lodging.
Advertisement
Australian Shelley Watts, competing in the 60-kg female boxing category, said she had been impressed by the official accommodation when she arrived on Monday.
