Some US rowers fall ill at 2016 Olympics test event

[ASFN Admin]

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Thirteen rowers on the 40-member U.S. team came down with stomach illness at the World Junior Rowing Championships - a trial run for next summer's Olympics - and the team doctor said she suspected it was due to pollution in the lake where the competition took place. The event took place amid rising concerns about the water quality at venues for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, now less than a year away. On July 30, The Associated Press published an independent analysis of water quality that showed high levels of viruses and, in some cases, bacteria from human sewage in all of Rio's Olympic and Paralympic water venues, including the Rodrigo de Freitas Lake, where the rowing competition took place.




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[CardsFan88]

A tough position to put them in. Don't practice and play it safe, or prepare like you should be, and get sick.

2016 Olympics might be a complete and utter disaster.

Oh and from what I've read elsewhere, the tests were literally 1.7 milliion times the acceptable limits they have in California. That 10x the limit the Brazilians have seems a bit, unacceptable?

As a reminder here's some important information

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...gest-race-Olympic-history-ready-Rio-2016.html

With barely a year to go until the Opening Ceremony, the sheer amount of work still to do seems overwhelming - despite those in charge insisting the £5.1bn project is on schedule.

Many important venues which were already done and dusted with a year to go at the London Olympic Park in 2011 are still only in their initial phase. Some arenas in Rio have not even begun taking form yet.

Meanwhile, whole road systems, bridges, underpasses and a rapid bus line with dedicated bus lanes and new bus stations taking visitors to the Olympic Park are all still waiting to be built.

Rio's main Olympic Park, situated beside a lagoon in the upmarket Barra da Tijuca district, still resembles a building site, with many of the Games' key venues little more than steel shells.

At the other end of the park, the Aquatics Centre is still having its metal structure bolted into place, while no work has been started installing its two pools or other facilities.

Despite the race against time, there was no sign of activity when MailOnline flew over last week.

Perhaps most alarming, though, is that an entire community, which now numbers 200 people and 50 houses, situated on the edge of the Olympic Park, needs to be cleared and flattened.

Authorities have managed to persuade most of the residents of the Vila Autodromo neighbourhood to accept compensation and move elsewhere, but those who refused the offers have vowed to hold out, sparking violent clashes with demolishers and police.

Nine miles inland from the Olympic Park is Deodoro, a run-down district of west Rio which will host events such as shooting, field hockey, equestrian, canoeing and BMX, as well as rugby and some basketball games.

The hilly terrain is a former military training ground and once South America's largest ammunitions dumping ground - and before work could start specialised crews had scour the area of unexploded bombs.

More delays occured last year when 2,000 construction workers went on strike for two weeks, demanding higher pay and more benefits.

From the air, Rio's second-biggest Olympic cluster appears to still be in its early stages, despite the looming completion deadlines.

Not a single worker could be seen on the site of the whitewater slalom course, described by organisers as 'the most complex work of the Olympics', but which at the moment still resembles a quarry.

The test event for the facility is in just five months time.

Deodoro's new 5,000-seater Youth Arena, which will host basketball and modern pentathalon fencing, is also a cause for concern, so far consisting of two concrete walls and the beginnings of a black metal structure - far from the impressive shiny gymnasium which is due to be unveiled in just nine months' time.

Next to it, no work has been started yet on the 14,200-seater Deodoro stadium, where rugby, three modern pentathlon events and seven aside football will be held, while behind it the 15,000-capacity Olympic Hockey Stadium - at the moment nothing more than a concrete foundation in the ground.

In the third of Rio's four Olympic zones, in the city centre around the world famous Maracana stadium, one of the most important venues of next year's Games, the Joao Havelange stadium where track and field events will take place, is also a long way from being ready to open to the public.

In 2013 the stadium was closed indefinitely after its roof was found to be in danger of collapsing - problems which still don't seem to have been solved.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-...sion-and-now-olympians-will-be-swimming-feces

In short, the Brazilian economy has never been worse and just to hammer that point home, Goldman added a chart which makes it quite clear that Brazil is not in a recession: it is almost certainly in a depression at this moment - note the recession bar on the chart below and where it is now.

... but it doesn't really matter: whether it is China, whether it is runaway stagflation, whether it is simple politician greed and corruption, Brazil has passed the recession phase and its economy is in absolute free fall.

But the Brazilian economy hit its metaphorical, and literal, bottom earlier today when AP reported that, with the Brazil Olympics of 2016 just about 1 year away, "athletes in next year's Summer Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games."

An AP analysis of water quality revealed dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues — results that alarmed international experts and dismayed competitors training in Rio, some of whom have already fallen ill with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea.

In other words, competitors in Brazil's olympic games will be swimming in ****.

How is this possible? Simple: the government promised it would fix everything, and the IOC believed it. Now, the moment of truth arrives and it is literally covered in feces.

...and I just ran across this yesterday about Jerry Colangelo

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports....r-2016-summer-olympics-in-rio/comment-page-1/

He is concerned, he said, about just how ready for the events the city of Rio will be. Reports about construction problems, light demand for tickets and concerns around pollution and security are not a surprise, Colangelo said.

“A few years ago, I was asked to serve on the Chicago committee in their bid to get the Olympics,” he said. “I was part of that effort, and the four finalists were Tokyo, Rio, Madrid and Chicago. I can be very objective when I say this: By far, Chicago had the best package. Not even close. Financial, facilities, security, infrastructure, everything. We finished fourth in the balloting. The only concern I had about the other cities was Rio, because South America has never hosted an Olympics. All of the things now that are being discussed as far as security, infrastructure, lack of hotels and pollution and everything, those were things that worried us back then. I’m hopeful, but everyone will have to overcome whatever obstacles are down there.”

...and in that Jerry Colangelo article there was a link to this from last year

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/apr/29/rio-2016-olympic-preparations-worst-ever-ioc

The Australian, who has been involved in Olympic sport for more than 40 years, warned there was "no plan B".

"The situation is critical on the ground," said Coates, who has been on six inspection visits to Rio. "We have become very concerned. They are not ready in many, many ways. We have to make it happen and that is the IOC's approach. You can't walk away from this."

But with just over two years until the first athletics events in the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, where the roof fell in last year, there are concerns that the Games will suffer a similar fate.

"The IOC has adopted a more 'hands-on' role. It is unprecedented for the IOC but there is no Plan B. We are going to Rio."

The IOC statement also paraphrased Coates describing the Rio preparations as "the worst I have experienced" and "worse than Athens". He added that the host city also had "social issues that need to be addressed".

 

[Southpaw]

IOC blew this one big time. Spend billions on facilities that will never be used again in a country with 3rd world infrastructure. Corruption reigns. This will be worse than the economic disaster in Athens 2004. How did that work out? This one will be an economic and health disaster. Next up Russia and China.

 

[Dback Jon]

As much as I want Rio 2016 to work, in some ways it would be a great wake-up call if it was a total flop.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

A tough position to put them in. Don't practice and play it safe, or prepare like you should be, and get sick.

2016 Olympics might be a complete and utter disaster.

Oh and from what I've read elsewhere, the tests were literally 1.7 milliion times the acceptable limits they have in California. That 10x the limit the Brazilians have seems a bit, unacceptable?

Did the rowers have that information before they went or did that come out after?

 

[Southpaw]

Rio, as in most Brazilian population centers, uses pipeline outfall sewage disposal systems to rid waste water i.e poop, chemicals and anything else than can be conduited from homes, factories, etc.

I grew up in South Florida and many years ago individual dwellings used septic tanks and drain fields for water (and poo ) waste. When mfdu structures sprung up the developers paid off the local permit granters to allow poop pipes to proliferate the coastline. These are being phased out of existence (decades too late and never should have been) by 2025. The damage was critical and will never return. 1/4 mile offshore from Lauderdale Beach a natural reef flourished for eons. Gone forever. Progress sucks.

https://logicalecology.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/sewage-outfalls-to-the-ocean-no-more-in-florida/

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Now multiply that situation by 100x. Brazil is literally and figuratively a ****hole. The show must go on.