Five days after noticing the water turn teal, embarrassed organisers have made the “radical” decision to drain a pool at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center and refill it before the synchronised swimming starts on Sunday.
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There wasn’t much room for error at a venue that has already become an Olympic laughingstock. Officials insisted that athletes were not put at risk by competing in the green water.
Olympic organizers have been scrambling to gain control of the situation since the waters of the diving pool mysteriously changed color Monday night. Rio organizers, in conjunction with advisors from FINA, swimming’s global governing body, and the worldwide Olympic Committee, believe the green water – and the proliferation of algae that they believe caused it – can be remedied by a change in the pool filters. However, the water in the pool for synchronized swimming and water polo was a bit bluer and lighter. They should have been better in fixing it quickly.
This information came after Rio Games spokesman Mario Andrada, in an attempt to try to explain the mishap last week, said, “We first learned that chemistry is not an exact science”.
What if this solution doesn’t work?
The water polo competition transfers to the Aquatic Centre when the swimming program is complete, something that was always scheduled.
After a week of trying to part with green tides in two outdoor swimming pools, Olympic officials over the weekend wrung out a fresh mea culpa and yet another explanation-neither of which were comforting.
“On day four of the games – Tuesday – the water turned green”, Gustavo Nascimento, Rio director of venue management, told a news conference Saturday.
“That’s going to be an impressive feat”, American diver Kassidy Cook, “if they can pull it off”.
A doctor treats Hungary’s Gergo Zalanki with eyedrops due to the water conditions.
Olympics officials Saturday gave what they said was a definitive explanation of why the water in two competition pools turned green last week: Someone mistakenly added more than 40 gallons of hydrogen peroxide August 5, neutralizing the chlorine and allowing the growth of “organic compounds” that might have included algae. Heavy rain slowed the flow of new chemicals added to the water which was also green in the pool used for the synchronised swimming and water-polo.
Replacing the water in time for the early-morning training, and competition at 11am (2am NZ Time), was a significant challenge, because the pool holds some three million litres of water.
Others had a different view. There remains a week of competition in diving events, which wrap up on the final Saturday of the Games. “When you’re standing up there it’s pretty off-putting”. I’ve never had a pool like this ever before.
Andrada said it was embarrassing not to have the issue cleared up by now.
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That can’t exactly happen if the water’s green.
