Australia team won’t move into ‘unfinished’ Athletes Village

Australian Olympic officials have condemned the Rio athletes’ village as uninhabitable due to plumbing and electrical problems, it was reported Monday.

Even Brazilian athletes who were meant to have started taking up lodgings in the brand-new complex from Sunday were being kept in hotels instead.

In a statement, the International Olympic Committee said athletes with unfinished rooms would “be placed in the best available accommodation in other buildings”.

“(Rio 2016 officials) have advised if teams are coming into an apartment building which happens not to be done, they will accommodate them in a tower that is”, Abbott said.

“There are some adjustments that we are dealing with and that will be resolved in a short while”, he said.

“Other organisers of the Olympic Games have had similar situations or worse”.

Australia’s delegation highlighted the poor state of the Village, 31-building complex located in the Barra da Tijuca district in the west of Rio de Janeiro created to house more than 18,000 athletes and coaching staff over the coming weeks.

“We’re having plumbing problems, we’ve got leaking pipes”, said Mike Tancred, the spokesman for the Australian team. “We did a stress test on Saturday, turned on the taps and flushed the toilets, and water came flooding down the walls”.

“From the exterior it looks like the Hilton Hotel”, Tancred said.

“We have been able to get in early enough and sort ourselves out”, she said.

The rest of the village, she said, “is one of the best” she had seen.

New Zealand jiu jitsu athlete Jason Lee said on Facebook that he was “kidnapped” by armed men in military police uniforms and forced to withdraw cash from two separate ATMs.

“Adjustments that have to be made will be made, and we will have the appropriate structure”, Paes told reporters in Brazil.

“As hosts, what we want is for everyone to feel at home. I nearly feel like putting a kangaroo in front of their building to make them feel at home”.

She described other amenities in the village as among the best.

In a statement Sunday, the Australian Olympic Committee says it will not permit any of its athletes to move into their rooms.

“We were disappointed the village wasn’t as ready as it might have been when we arrived and it hasn’t been easy”.

“Our team has had to get stuck in to get the job done”, Waddell said.

“I’m not sure what’s more depressing, the fact this stuff is happening to foreigners so close to the Olympic Games or the fact that Brazilians have to live in a society that enables this. on a daily basis”.

There is a enormous eating hall, a smaller restaurant, and prayer rooms for different faiths.

“The key thing is about planning and the decision by our team to always be in there first, getting every advantage possible for our athletes and team”.

But recent attacks, such as the one on July 14 in Nice, France that killed 84 people, have prompted officials to bolster their security plans, notably by reinforcing checks and screenings.