A Rio 2016 spokesman said: “The pool has been drained and refilled”.
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“We’ve been trying for four days”. Canada’s Karine Thomas and Jacqueline Simoneau sit seventh after the free routine portion of the competition on Sunday at the Rio Olympics.
But now it has been revealed the reason why it suddenly turned green was after 80 litres of hydrogen peroxide was put in the water. He says the neutralized chlorine stimulated the proliferation of organic compounds when athletes started using the pools last weekend. “We are hosting the Olympic Games and athletes are here so water is going to be an issue”.
“This (replacement operation) will be done overnight”. Athletes have complained that the water or chemicals have hurt their eyes, and the murkiness makes it hard to see underwater.
Someone reportedly dumped 160 liters, or 42.2 gallons, of hydrogen peroxide into the synchronized and water polo pool and the diving pool.
Mr Nascimento said that the monitoring system for the pools at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center was functioning but had been tricked by the hydrogen peroxide into thinking the chlorine was still working.
“We were not consulted; our contractor’s failure is our failure”.
The green pools have become a huge headache for organisers of the Rio Games, becoming the butt of “swamp” jokes among the millions of spectators in the stands and watching in television. Some water polo players have complained about itchy eyes.
Water polo also took place in the Maria Lenk stadium but can now move, as planned, the Aquatics Stadium after the swimming events concluded Saturday. Another freakish theory concluded that the pool was Shrek’s water park.
“At last, this is real water”, Natalia Ishchenko of Russian Federation said through a translator.
The organizers maintained that the green water was not a health hazard but had to be replaced for the competitors and judges need underwater visibility for the synchronized swimming event. The diving pool, which did not cause as many problems for divers this week, will remain as it is with organisers continuing to treat the water in the hope for it to return to normal later next week.
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Andrada said he was sorry to have promised at several points along the way that the problem would be cleared up right away, when that had not turned out to be the case.
