The world junior championships were held as an Olympics test event last week in Rio, with concerns polluted water at the course could affect rowers.
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The AP commissioned four rounds of testing in each of those three Olympic water venues, and also in the surf off Ipanema Beach, which is popular with tourists but where no events will be held.
In this August. 5, 2015 photo, a rower from Turkey participates in the World Junior Rowing Championships on Rodrigo de Freitas lake in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Only one was unable to compete on the final day, however team officials believed it was a case of food poisoning and didn’t have any concerns about the lake pollution.
“I don’t think so…because of television rights”, he said.
“As soon as kids started [getting sick], we were bleaching oar handles, we were immediately washing hands after coming off the water”, said U.S. coach Susan Francia.
“We took a number of additional measures (in addition to pre-travel vaccines/medications) such as protecting water bottles from exposure to the water of the lagoa (lagoon), covered all open scratches or sores, and washed with antiseptic soap after every session. Other countries had water bottles in zip-locked bags”.
Rowing officials will debrief the athletes when they return to the U.S., likely through the rest of the week.
“Based on the results of the testing, according to the WHO standards, there is no significant additional risk to athlete health”.
“You don’t want to see athletes in the boat-park vomiting”, Francia said, recounting that the competitor she saw get sick was not an American.
The AP testing, which will continue through the Olympics, also checked for bacterial fecal coliforms – which at times during the study peaked at the Olympic lake to 10 times the acceptable limit for secondary contact per Brazilian regulations.
The U.S. team also said it didn’t take certain precautions that it should have – American rowers used water bottles stored in their rowboats, which could have been exposed to contamination.
“If they do not agree, or do not need to, we’ll talk about collectively what to do and doubtless finance our personal check”, Smith stated. “The Brazilian regulation does not inform us to try this (viral testing)”.
“They have given us a unique set of circumstances”.
“It is sometimes hard to determine the exact cause”, US Rowing Director of Communications Allison Frederick said in an email.
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“We would like to ask FINA or the IOC if we are able to swim (at night) before the swimming starts”, said Tatsuo Ogura, the federation’s spokesman.
