Rio de Janeiro, Aug 13: Work has begun on returning the water in the diving pool at the ongoing Rio Olympics to its blue colour, according to Games officials. She even added that the Rio Olympics 2016 water may look like a swamp the next day. There remains a week of competition in diving events, which wrap up on the final Saturday of the Games.
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The pool re-opened Friday afternoon, and events continued as scheduled. We could have done better in fixing it quickly. Other divers have said they are trying to make sure they do not open their mouths underwater because they are anxious about swallowing any of the murky water.
Andrada said the discolored water will be drained and replaced with practice pool water.
World swimming governing body FINA blamed the color change on a failure by the organizers to sufficiently treat the water after tanks at the venue ran out of pool chemicals.
Still, it’s worth mentioning that not all athletes anxious about the green water.
Mario Andrada, the communication director for the Rio 2016 local organizing committee, says a sudden change in alkalinity is the culprit. “Water tests at Maria Lenk Aquatic Center diving pool were conducted and found to be no risk to the athletes’ health”.
However water polo players who use the adjacent pool have complained of stinging eyes because they believe it has too much chlorine to make sure it did not also turn green. The same pool is needed on Sunday for the start of synchronized swimming where competitors need to see each other under water.
Officials confirmed to Buzzfeed that the emerald water was the result of a “decrease in alkalinity” caused by “increased use of the pool in the last few weeks”. Then, on Friday, Games officials closed it to decontaminate the water. “Once it turned green, we again made another bit of a mistake”.
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They’ve already had to deal with a Belgian woman who won a 2012 bronze medal falling ill after sailing the polluted waters of Guanabara Bay. Second pool turns green in Rio%INLINE%.
