There's a contradictory mission for rowers competing in this year's Summer Olympics. Get into your boat, work your hardest — but try to avoid the water.
And definitely don't swallow it.
On Saturday at the polluted Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon — the venue
for Olympic rowing — rowers bleached the handles of oars. They swished
with anti-bacterial mouthwash, kept water bottles in plastic bags, and
took precautions to avoid coming down with diarrhea or other
gastrointestinal symptoms that could compromise years of training and a
chance at gold.
To the naked eye, the lagoon's polluted water
seemed clearer than usual on Saturday, likely the result of
bioremediation to clean up the sewage-filled area.
Despite the immaculate appearance, a 16-month long independent analysis
by The Associated Press has shown the rowing venue — and other water
venues used by 1,400 athletes in the Olympics — is teeming with dangerous viruses from human sewage that could cause athletes to become ill.
Rio
treats only about half of its sewage, dumping the rest into the waters
surrounding the metropolitan area of 12 million. Despite promises the
water would be clean by the opening of the games, the AP's tests
confirmed widespread contamination.
The pollution has set up a quandary for the athletes. Competitors in a water sport must essentially avoid the water.
Some
have been training off and on for months in Rio, hoping to build up
immunity. Others decided to come in quickly and take their chances.
Canadian
rower Carling Zeeman rushed to the dock to prepare for her heat, and
instead of racing strategy from her coach, she got something else.
"I was greeted by a bottle of hand sanitizer," she said.
Officials
did their best to put a positive front on the problem. The water, while
polluted, does often look clean. Drier winter weather in Rio recently
has also helped because there has been no torrential rain to flush human
waste from the hillside slums that surround the city into the lagoon.
The
water looked so pristine that Matt Smith, the executive director of
World Rowing — the world governing body other the sport — made a bold
claim.
"It's nearly drinking water," Smith told reporters. "It's swimming quality. It's really good."
Smith,
who heads the Switzerland-based body, said the lagoon provided
"excellent water quality," which would shock Rio natives who live around
the lagoon situated under the soaring Christ the Redeemer statue.
They
are accustomed to smelling the stench, seeing fish die off, and few
swim in a body of water that looks postcard-perfect from a distance but
not so good up close.
Smith is relying on water-quality studies
done by the state of Rio de Janeiro, which measure only bacteria levels.
The studies have shown bacterial pollution levels regarded as safe by
the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee.
The WHO and the state do not test for viruses, a more expensive and advanced test.
Many
athletes complained more on Saturday about conditions they could see —
in this case high winds and choppy water — and less about viruses and
bacteria they couldn't.
Still, avoiding the water is an impossible task.
"We
try to avoid contact with the water as much as possible," Australian
rower Kim Brennan said, also detailing a day of white caps and spray on
the wide, exposed lagoon. "Obviously, we were pretty much swimming in it
today, so we'll find out soon enough what's in there."
Brennan,
an Olympic bronze and silver medalist in London, said her team was
taking "extra precautions" and trying to "prioritize our hygiene."
"We try to avoid any hand-to-mouth contact and try to avoid getting any of the water in our mouths," Brennan said.
Mahe
Drysdale of New Zealand was optimistic and said it was "a lot better
than anyone expected it to be." But he said he wasn't a scientist — and
still had a plan to combat the water.
"We're just making sure we
don't put our hands in our mouth after touching the water," he said.
"And we make sure that anything we eat and drink has been protected from
the water."
But even on calm days, rowers get wet from spray and splash. And there are risks when the water gets rough.
A
Serbian pair in sculls learned that the hard way when they tipped over,
breaking the cardinal rule of avoiding contact. They tumbled straight
in.
Associated Press
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