IOC: Rio’s polluted waters will be safe

To wit, a reporter asked IOC Coordination Commission President Nawal El Moutawakel if she would be willing to swim in the polluted waters that Olympic athletes will have to deal with in a year.

It’s “now about dealing in a timely manner with millions of operational details”, she said.

Sail Canada is sending 7 sailors to Rio to compete in 5 of the 10 Olympic events.

Despite El Moutawakel’s upbeat mood, the news conference was dominated by questions about Rio’s sewage pollution.

“This edition of the Games will take place in the “Marvelous City”, Rio de Janeiro, where you can discover one of the best views of the country, friendly people, Copacabana Beach, Sugar Loaf and the Maracanã Stadium, where the opening ceremony and the finals of the Olympic Football competition will be held”.

“From now on until the games a tremendous amount of planning work remains to be completed”, she said.

SAO PAULO August 14 global sailors in Brazil for an Olympic test event are taking special supplements and precautionary measures to stop them getting sick during and after the week-long event in Rio de Janeiro’s murky waters, team representatives said on Friday.

U.S. rowing coach Susan Francia, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, told the AP that 13 athletes and four staff members – including herself – suffered various gastrointestinal symptoms during the team’s two weeks of training in Rio that concluded with the weekend competition at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon.

The 2016 Rio Olympics, still a year away, are already going to shit.

Others have been far more sceptical, calling for viral rather than just bacterial testing to be carried out following an Associated Press study which reported a “major risk” of athletes contracting illnesses. “In Newport, Rhode Island, it’s grass, in Queensland, Australia, you’re anxious about box jelly fish”, US coach Jay Glaser said as he helped sailors rig a catamaran. But state and local officials have acknowledged the Olympic pledges are nowhere near being met. While the first efforts to clean up the bay debuted in 1993, Gov. Luiz Fernando Pezao recently pushed timeline for a cleanup of the Guanabara Bay back to 2035.

“We’re not really sure”, Ackerman said.

Baku submitted its bid to host the Games along with Doha (Qatar), Madrid (Spain), Prague (Czech Republic), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Tokyo (Japan), Chicago (the U.S.), and St. Petersburg (Russia).

In the build up to London 2012, 18 medallists in the test event went on to take an Olympic honour, a statistic that could well be repeated and even bettered at Rio 2016.

“Thanks to the games, the level of awareness regarding the bay has been raised to unprecedented levels, which is a good thing”, Dubi said.