Yikes! The water at Rio’s Olympics 2016 diving pool inexplicably turned green on Tuesday, August 9.
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Olympic spectators have been alarmed by the murky, green water in the diving pool in Rio de Janeiro, but the global governing body for aquatics says the water doesn’t pose a safety concern.
A Canada water expert was offering assistance to the Olympic crew, while athletes were still unsure on Wednesday morning how the quality of the pool would be later in the day.
The women’s synchronized 10m platform finals went on as planned Tuesday despite the green water, with the Chinese duo of Chen Ruolin and Liu Huixia coming out on top.
Image: General view of the Olympic diving pool (L) and the pool for the waterpolo and synchronized swimming (R) this afternoon.
Reuters reported that Rio 2016 organisers said tests of the water in the diving pool found it posed no risk to health, although they were still investigating.
Fortunately, FINA has put out a statement to let Olympians know that there aren’t any health risks associated with the green water.
His diving partner Dan Goodfellow agreed, saying: “We’ve been told by the doctors it’s safe, so I’m sure it won’t affect any of the diving events”. Officials said they were “pleased to say the competition was successfully completed”. It’s not like it’s toxic or dirty or any of that. On Wednesday, some complained that water treatments used to clear up the pools were impacting their events. “But it’s Brazil and everything is green down here, so maybe it was a decoration to make it look pretty”.
“It doesn’t look from a visual perspective to be an algae because you can see through the water and algae clouds the water”, he said.
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“Everybody was scratching their heads going, ‘What’s going on?'” said Canadian team captain Mitch Geller.
