After four consecutive days of green, cloudy water in the pools at Maria Lenk Aquatics Center, Rio officials finally drained and refilled the pool used for water polo in an effort to restore its color. The officials chose to drain the 3.7 million-liter pool before the synchronized swimming event will begin, which is scheduled on Monday. The pool for the water-polo competitions had turned cloudy blue while the diving pool remained murky bluish green by Saturday afternoon.
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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. He said the process took around 11 hours of work.
“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.
Though Rio organizers assured the public that they had the situation under control and the pools would return to normal by the following day, Rio spokesperson Mario Andrada apologized for “over-promising and under-delivering” on the status of the pools at a press conference on Saturday, according to the Washington Post. Given that synchronized swimmers need to see one another below the water’s surface, Olympics officials were quick to try to clear up the second pool.
Nascimento said the problem started on opening day, August 5, when 80 liters (21.13 gallons) of hydrogen peroxide was put in the water, neutralizing the ability of chlorine to kill organics. The one used by water polo teams will be drained since it won’t be needed after Saturday, while the synchronized swimmers will continue to have use of their practice pool. She concluded that they learned painful lessons the hard way. The massive undertaking was necessary to ensure clear water for judges and competitors, who spend much of their time underwater. Officials acknowledged that while it is certainly not in optimal condition, the water is safe. Basically, eliminating the chlorine allowed for the growth of “organic compounds”, including what might’ve been algae. “The problem was that the chlorine in the water was somewhat neutralised”. We truly hope that in the first 12-hour cycle, we are going to see a sensible reaction on the overall aesthetics of the water.
It turns out that hydrogen peroxide was poured into the pools the day of the opening ceremony, causing the drastic colour change.
He said the fact 120 athletes were using the diving pool also increased the amount of “organics” in the water.
“Of course it’s an embarrassment”, Gustavo Nascimento, director of venue management for the Rio Olympics, told the New York Times.
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“The reason why [this happened], we haven’t solved it”.
