Muddy waters for Olympic Sailors in 2016.
The state of Rio’s Olympic sailing venue is in the spotlight this week after startling claims from the Rio Environmental Secretary, Andre Correa.
"Removing 80 per cent of the pollutants? It's not going to happen. It's simply not going to happen.” Said Correa in a news conference this week.
According to him it would take more than $4 billion and several years, if not decades to achieve those kinds of numbers. Certainty not possible before 2016.
The problem is this: Guanabara Bay is a cess pool. Full of raw sewage, old couches, dead bodies (animals) and a drug resistant super-bacteria that co-exists with other diseases like Hepatitis and god-knows-what else. Our Olympic team is going to be sailing in it, capsizing in it (hopefully not) and being sprayed with it.
Yuk.
It’s also gusty, variable and pretty small for an Olympic Venue. So what’s the plan? Rio Olympic officials say they have no ‘Plan B’ for a sailing venue, now it’s up to the Aussie teams and their management to come up with a solution. Something better than wearing a mask and snorkel….
You can be sure this topic will be fiercely debated between now and the 2016 Rio Olympics, so watch this space for the latest developments.
Perth, WA
