Rio 2016: Athletes warned to keep mouths closed while in faeces-infested water
All efforts by the government to clean the Rio waters seem to have failed
Athletes competing in the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil have been warned by doctors, engineers, and scientists to keep their mouths shut while participating in activities in the water.The swimmers gotta breathe, yes? Two of my kids were competition swimmers and IIRC, the only way to get enough air in the very limited time they had to breathe per stroke cycle was through the mouth.
Researchers found that many of the beaches in Rio de Janeiro have been long contaminated with raw sewage, household garbage, and even dead bodies, creating hazardous swimming conditions for the 500,000 people expected to descend on the city in August.
“Foreign athletes will literally be swimming in human crap, and they risk getting sick from all those microorganisms,” Rio paediatrician Dr Daniel Becker told the New York Times. “It’s sad but also worrisome.”
The Brazilian government had promised to clean the pathogen-infested Guanabara Bay in 2014, but those efforts failed.
With all the scandals already in play for Rio, such as the potential total disqualification of the entire Russian team, this Olympics may herald the end of the Summer Olympics as we know it.
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