Olympic Village opens to Australia boycott
The Olympic Village in Rio opened its doors to the world’s athletes yesterday, less than two weeks before the Games begin-but Australia immediately boycotted the facility, calling it “simply not safe or ready.”
The criticism was another embarrassing blow for host Brazil, which is struggling to show all will be well with the 2016 Olympics to open August 5, despite low ticket sales and general public apathy amid a deep recession. The Olympic Village, a 31-building complex located in the Barra da Tijuca district in the west of Rio de Janeiro, is meant to house more than 18,000 athletes and coaching staff over the coming weeks. Some of the Brazilian delegation were to move yesterday into the official lodgings, which are all fairly basic shared rooms fitted with anti-mosquito devices to prevent the spread of Zika. Hundreds of thousands of condoms are also being supplied.
But Australia’s delegation spurned the Village as being riddled with problems, especially with wiring and plumbing, and said its athletes would continue to be put up in nearby hotels for the time being. “Problems include blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed and dirty floors in need of a massive clean,” the head of the Australian team, Kitty Chiller, said in a statement. The system failed a test on Saturday in which taps and toilets were turned on in apartments on several floors, she said. “Water came down walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was ‘shorting’ in the electrical wiring.” She said other delegations, including those from Britain and New Zealand, were experiencing the same problems.
Chiller said she would reassess the situation at the Village after further tests on plumbing and fire safety, but cautioned that “there is much work to be done.”
As dire as the Australian description of the Village sounded, one of the 207 delegations to bed down in the facility was more relieved yesterday to find out its athletes would be able to make it to Rio. Russia, whose participation had been uncertain following revelations of state-run doping, hailed a decision by the International Olympic Committee to not impose a blanket ban on all its sportsmen and women.
If all the obstacles in the Village are surmounted, the athletes will find a self-contained community planned to have all the services they need over the 17-day Olympiad. There is even a “mayor” to head up the athlete welcoming ceremonies: Janeth Arcain, a retired Brazilian basketballer who won a silver Olympic medal in 1996 and a bronze in 2000.
Security, naturally, will be high around the complex, and around Rio generally.
The arrest Thursday of 10 Brazilians suspected of planning attacks during the Olympics revived memories of the Munich Games in 1972 when an armed Palestinian group took Israeli athletes hostage and killed 11 of them. However, Brazilian Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes said the suspects were “absolutely amateur”, “disorganised” and had no specific targets. But recent attacks, such as the one on July 14 in Nice, France that killed 84 people, have prompted officials to bolster their security plans, notably by reinforcing checks and screenings.
From Sunday, some 50,000 police and soldiers are being deployed in Rio to protect sports venues, tourist spots and key transport areas. — AFP