Rio’s main Olympic pool will be drained as part of major work to prepare for Sunday’s synchronised swimming.
Advertisement
Rio de Janeiro: Rio Olympics organisers have admitted the wrong chemicals were put in the pool at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre on the day of the opening ceremony, turning it a murky green colour that has amused and baffled the world.
Think Rio officials were embarrassed they had to hire helicopters and spotters to try and keep sewage out of sailing waters?
“There are not huge complaints about the performance of the athletes and the health and safety of the athletes” using the diving pool, he said.
He said the water from the competition pool will be drained and replaced with water from the warm-up pool, which he said is in “perfect condition”. Andrada said water in the main pool would be replaced because synchronised swimming competitors and judges needed to see underwater, unlike diving.
Nascimento said the diving pool and then the bigger pool next to it turned green because a contractor added 80 litres of hydrogen peroxide which neutralised the chlorine. The green pool water only added to those headaches. Instead, they began draining it Saturday and planned to transfer almost 1 million gallons of clear water from a nearby practice pool in time for the start of synchronized swimming.
The pool will be drained and refilled beginning Saturday evening after the women’s individual 3m springboard semifinals.
Officials have insisted that the health of the athletes using the pools is not at risk. “We learned painful lessons the hard way”.
“There is some imprecision in maintaining chemistry in a large body of water”, said Tom Lachocki, executive director of the National Swimming Pool Foundation in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Hydrogen peroxide is normally used as a disinfectant and for bleaching purposes. “This was an issue we could not solve quickly [but] we need to have water looking the way it should look”. The pool had earlier been the site of the water polo competition, which is moving to the larger Olympic Aquatics Stadium. “If you’re a competitor like we all are, if you’re here for the right reasons, you’re not anxious about that”.
Advertisement
If the planned fixes failed, Andrada said, the competition schedule would have to be revisited.
