Author’s Note: Updated since original publishing.
Just over a month removed from FINA President Julio Maglione’s statement to the press that the Rio water pollution situation was “not a big problem”, the aquatic world’s governing body has now done an about-face on the issue of athletes’ health and safety.
Today, FINA is now calling the Olympic aquatic facilities in Rio ‘substandard’ and indicates Rio organizers have shown a ‘disrepect’ for aquatic events. In a letter submitted to Rio organizers, FINA now identifies potential health risks associated with the open water swimming events. (AP)
According to USA Today, specifically within the letter, FINA demands testing for virus levels in the Copacabana beach waters, which is the site of the women’s and men’s marathon (open water) swimming races.
We reported last month how the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) began collecting data on water pollution after the Associated Press deemed all water venues for the Games were unsafe for swimming. In their tests, the AP found that there were “dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in the Olympic and Paralympic venues.” Despite this, Rio State Government officials have insisted that these issues in Guanabara Bay will cause no problems at the 2016 Olympics.
Last August, U.S. Rowing medical staff reported that 13 of its team members had fallen ill after having participated in a test event in Rio at Rodrigo de Freitas Lake. The athletes were stricken with various gastrointestinal symptoms at the World Junior Rowing Championships and the team doctor said it is her “personal feeling it is due to the lake.”
FINA’s communication to Rio organizers today also lashed out at the decision reducing the seating capacity at the primary competition pool, indicating the action now diminishes the swimming events in terms of “importance and value”. Whereas the London Olympic Games’ main pool had seating for 17,500 spectators, the venue in Rio will house approximately 12,500 to 13,000 people.
The thing is–unless for some reason all of Rio’s sewage was already collected within piped infrastructure, and then simply not treated before discharge into ocean waters–the concept that Rio could clean this up before an Olympics was never realistic. The IOC should have known this when they awarded the Olympics. If the infrastructure is there, then, perhaps building the treatment plant alone would have been doable a few YEARS ago to get the problem addressed by Summer 2016.
But there is simply no way now that (a) a Treatment Plant (or more likely Plants) could be build in time now; and (b) even if they could get it build, its impact would not happen overnight. It would be a time… Read more »
You are right. This is no joke
http://espn.go.com/extra/panamgames/story/_/id/13239405/pan-games-2015-chip-peterson-swimming-again-rio-mind
Or Bobby Boucher…
Ask Chip Peterson if water quality is important….
Does anyone remember that scene in “Erin Brockovich” where she offered the litigators water from the poisoned wells? Regarding Rio, along those lines, I say someone should fill a small pool with the venue water and invite FINA and Rio Olympic Committee members to take a dip.
I think the water quality is a little worse than “substandard”
“Fee” not few.
Always follow the money with FINA.
FINA must be charging a water contamination testing program few of about $40 million for them to care about this.