Sailors’ nightmare in Rio Oly

Hunt pushing for superficial cleanup of Guanabara Bay Olympics Roundup

The Pearl Clinic team

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 25, (AP): If you’re the head of world sailing, this is your worst Olympic nightmare.

A sailor nears the finish line in Rio de Janeiro’s polluted Guanabara Bay, holding the lead with a coveted gold medal in sight. Suddenly, the boat loses speed. A plastic bag catches the rudder. Chasing boats overtake for all the medals, and millions on worldwide television watch a life-time dream being crushed.

“We want an absolutely fair playing field; getting the rubbish out of the water,” Andy Hunt, the CEO of World Sailing — the sport’s governing body — told The Associated Press. “We don’t want to have any stories of sailors with plastic bags, or whatever it might be that in any way impacts performance.”

Hunt met in Rio on Monday and Tuesday with city, state, and Olympic organizing committee officials, pushing for what amounts to a superficial cleanup of Guanabara Bay.

Rio state officials have acknowledged a real cleanup of Guanabara will take 20 years — organizers promised to do it for the Olympics — with the city still pouring at least half of its untreated sewage into its surrounding waters, including Guanabara.

The massive bay is about 30 kms (20 miles) long and almost as wide in places.

An independent study by The Associated Press has shown high levels of viruses and sometimes bacteria from human sewage in the waters where hundreds of sailors will compete when the Olympics open in 2-1/2 months.

There has been one big improvement so far: the new Marina da Gloria. The new marina building is sparkling, and the water