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AP Investigation: Olympic teams to swim, boat in Rio's filth

13 Comments
By BRAD BROOKS and JENNY BARCHFIELD

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13 Comments
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Absolutely revolting, both with the fact that the waters are like this and the fact that the competitions are being allowed to be held there. People are DEFINITELY going to be sick! and it's also, sadly, going to put into doubt the actual performance ability of the athletes, especially if things are close in the medalings. Some countries will be saying, no doubt, "Our athlete would have won but was ill from infection (and it might be true!)," and the whole thing being thrown into doubt. Obviously safety is a much more important concern, but still. This might just force Brazil to try and make a quick fix, but obviously the whole system is in dire need of overhaul and it'll take decades or longer to recover -- they should not have been given the games, and the swimming events should be moved.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Um! Reading through the whole report leaves me speechless.

The pollution is one thing. The fact that people from the IOC down have done too little or nothing all this time, is worse.

Perhaps an athlete boycott might occur. Still, it is interesting that people such as the Austrian sailing team persist in practising there. Is glory worth all the vomit talked about?

It makes me wonder what people may really have to swim through in Tokyo's waterfront in 2020. I remember it (and Tokyo Bay) being fairly good - I hope my memory is still correct.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Glad I swam there 30 years ago when adenovirus was only 7000 ppm. We New Yorkers think we've got it bad. Wow!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

If I was one of the atheletes participating in the games, I'd refuse! Who in their right mind wants to swim in human feces.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

This captures today's IOC and the Olympic movement in a nutshell. It really is no longer about the athletes. The athletes and the games are just the mechanism for the IOC to make money and to engage in geopolitics.

Why was Brazil given the games in the first place? Was it because it had the best bid and the highest likelihood of executing on all of its promises to deliver the games? Or was it simply a case of the IOC deciding it was "time" for a South American country to host the games?

The athletes that compete in most events in the Olympics train a lifetime for the chance to compete in one Olympics at most. Therefore, for many athletes, the '16 Rio Olympics is their only chance. Sure, one could say that they could refuse to compete, but unless there is a united front by all competing countries and their Olympic Committees, the net result will be that those that refuse to compete will lose out on an opportunity to potentially win an Olympic medal.

Ultimately, while Brazil is to blame for this since they made promises they apparently will not be able to deliver, it is the IOC that should be held accountable. There should have been contingency plans in place and hard & fast deadlines for the Rio organising committee to meet, absent which the IOC would put in motion contingency plans.

Undoubtedly athletes will get sick and when it all blows up in the faces of the IOC and the organisers, there will be finger pointing and hand wringing.... before they all go back to their feeding troughs of caviar and champagne.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Why can't they just relocate the swimming competitions elsewhere, in another city if needed?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Words ending in 'id' are always so putrid, fetid, rancid, horrid, torrid, tepid, lurid, morbid, rabid, and squalid.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I'm even dead scared of public pools, there's no way people would get me in that water unless they tied me up and threw me in.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Is it true that Korea and China are blaming Japan for this?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Brazilian authorities promised the moon in order to win their Olympic bid and as usual they’re not making good on those promises

But they only bulit one treatment facility. What about the other 7?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Wasn't there some problem with China's/Beijing's water back in `08? Something about algae or pollutants there, too?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The Olympics jumped the shark with Beijing - maybe before.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How about this:

Before the athletes decide whether to swim in that water or not, the IOC officials should come down from their safe offices and swim in that water first.

Fair?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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