Australia evacuates due to fire
Australian Olympic team members were forced to evacuate their lodgings yesterday at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics after a small fire in a basement parking area caused smoke to fill the stairwells.
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Australian team spokesman Mike Tancred said about 100 athletes and officials were evacuated from their building in the sprawling athletes’ village. The compound contains 31 buildings and will accommodate 18,000 athletes and officials at the peak of the games, which open in a week.
“The stairwells filled with smoke, but the fire was confined to the carpark and no one was injured,” Tancred said in a statement.
The fire will once again draw attention to Rio’s spotty preparations, which have been marred by the Zika virus, severe water pollution, crime, and slow ticket sales.
Tancred said team members returned to their rooms after 30 minutes.
This comes after a tension-filled week in which Australia refused to occupy its building, citing gas and plumbing leaks, electrical shorts and general filth. At least a dozen other teams also complained of problems that affected about 400 of the 3,600 rooms in the sprawling compound.
Rio officials declared the compound “fully ready” after deploying hundreds of plumbers and electricians, who worked around the clock to ready the buildings.
Australia finally moved staff and athletes into the village on Wednesday.
No ‘Pokemon Go’
So the plumbing and electricity in the athletes’ village took several days to fix. Who cares?
But no “Pokemon Go”? That’s an outrage!
Since debuting to wild adulation in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand this month, the game from Google spinoff Niantic Inc. has spread like wildfire, launching in more than 30 countries or territories — but not Brazil.
For athletes and other visitors caught up in the wave, not having access is just one more knock against an Olympics that officials are racing to get ready. Even Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes went to Facebook to urge Niantic investor Nintendo to release the game in Brazil.
One video circulating virally, with more than 3.5 million views, shows one fan questioning how Brazil can host the Olympics but not Pokemon.
More Russian bans
The International Weightlifting Federation has banned the Russian federation and all its weightlifters from the Rio Olympics.
The IWF said the multiple cases of doping by Russian weightlifters have “seriously damaged” the integrity of the sport. The eight Russian Olympic spots have been offered to other countries.
The IWF said the doping results produced by Russian weightlifters are “extremely shocking and disappointing.”
Russia is confident that most of its Olympic team will be able to compete, but its efforts to reinstate banned athletes are a mixed bag. Sports Minister Vitaly
Mutko told local media that 272 of the country’s athletes had been approved by international sports federations, out of an original team of 387, adding that the number could rise.