‘Corrective’ work underway at athletes’ digs in Rio: Reports

Things in Rio de Janeiro are going into the toilet.

Now then, if only athletes and staff could flush them.

Australia’s Olympic delegation raised concerns on Sunday over “blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed wiring,” inside athletes’ apartments ahead of next month’s Games,

reports. Poor conditions led to members of the Australian delegation moving into nearby hotels while corrective work was underway — a concern given athletes, including Canada’s, will arrive in droves this week.

“While there have been some initial operational challenges in our section of the Athletes’ Village, we are addressing these and have managed to find good solutions,” said Chris Overholt, the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee.

It was just two years ago that Olympic athletes complained of living conditions in Sochi, where some accommodations were akin to paper mache and athletes reported unclean tap water and exposed wiring.

“We are generally satisfied with our village accommodations and thanks to some incredible work by our Mission team staff working in close collaboration with Rio 2016, we can say that we expect to be ready to welcome our Team Canada athletes when they arrive in Rio in the coming days on time and at this time, without interruption to our plan,” Overholt added.

Rio’s Olympic Village is one of the biggest ever, housing close to 18,000 athletes and staffers for the Games that run Aug. 5-21.

The infrastructure includes 360 km of piping and 7.5 km of wiring, some of which appears to be faulty.