The almost 1 million gallons of water in the pool at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center, which had been used for water polo, has turned green, much like the water in the diving pool nearby. Officials had previously blamed the pools’ swamp-like shade on algae, people, and a shortage of an unnamed chemical.
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“Of course it’s an embarrassment”, Andrada said.
The bigger pool at the outdoor venue, which has been staging water polo, is the closest to being the normal blue, while the diving pool is green.
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.
Someone, the officials said, mistakenly added 160 litres of hydrogen peroxide to them on Aug 5, neutralising the chlorine and allowing for the growth of “organic compounds” that might have included algae.
“It should be light blue, transparent, and also things could have been done better, quickly”, Andrada said. “The world is here, the best athletes are here, so the water comes to be an issue”.
Rio Games organising committee spokesman Mario Andrada said water from the venue’s warm-up area would be pumped overnight into the murky main pool which had been used for water polo.
In case you needed another reminder why chemistry is real and important, look no further than the Rio Olympics competition pools: Olympic synchronized swimmers may not be able to compete as scheduled because the pools are too green to see in.
The problem was, Olympic officials didn’t realize the chlorine was neutralized.
It is still not known exactly why the water turned green, although officials have repeatedly reassured divers there is no risk to their health.
“We’ve learned a painful lesson”.
Instead, they made a decision to drain the larger of the two pools and transfer 1 million gallons of water from a practice pool in time for the synchronized swimming event scheduled to begin on Sunday. While both pools seem to be improving a bit, Nascimento said there was not enough time to complete the cleaning process by Sunday.
Previous attempts to fix the green pools with copious amounts of chlorine resulted in athletes complaining of burning sensations in their eyes and noses.
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By Saturday afternoon, the water in the water polo and synchronised swimming pool had already turned a cloudy blue, while the diving pool remained a murky blue-ish green.
