IOC President Dr Thomas Bach yesterday described the cleaning of Guanabara Bay as one of the biggest challenges facing the organisers of the 2016 Games ahead of Rio. "It's about the safety and health of the athletes before Rio," said Bach. The district administration had previously reported that it would not be able to achieve the target of cleaning 80 per cent of Guanabara Bay by the Games.
The water quality of the bay had repeatedly hit the headlines. Floating rubbish, animal carcasses and faecal bacteria turned the venue for the sailing competitions and triathlons into a cesspit.
The fact that the organising committee had recognised the challenge was "a first, important step towards overcoming the obstacles", said Bach. However, "there is no time to lose".
However, such slogans are currently of little help to the athletes. In three weeks' time, the Pre-Olympics, the pre-Olympic Games, the test regatta on the Olympic course, will begin. The German Sailing Association will be there with twelve athletes.
"The water in the bay is heavily contaminated with faecal bacteria," says Hendrik Ismar, 470 youth coach and, as a qualified doctor, responsible for analysing water samples from the bay. "In Germany, any body of water with these levels would be closed immediately."
But there is sailing, and the athletes can only protect themselves to a limited extent. "We've had an additional hepatitis vaccination," says laser sailor Philipp Buhl, Germany's greatest medal hope. "Apart from that, you just have to be careful not to swallow any of the water." This includes not touching the mouthpiece of a drinking bottle on board.
Buhl already experienced the pollution during a test regatta last year. "That was blatant," says the Sonthofen native. "At high tide, it pushed turquoise-blue water into the bay, which looked completely normal. When the tide turned and the tide went out, you could clearly see the edge of the current. On one side, blue water was still flowing in, while next to it a brown sludge was already flowing out, in which a large piece of rubbish floated every ten metres and which was strewn with plastic bags. The only problem was that you had to sail into the sludge to be fast."
He would much rather sail outside the bay on the open sea, where the water is apparently clean and the sailing conditions are also much better.
For Buhl, the pollution of the bay harbours a great personal danger: "I'm afraid that everything you've invested and given up will be in vain just because you catch an infection at the Games."
