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Rio Olympic Village deemed "uninhabitable" by Australian delegation

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R

RBH

Member
The troubled Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games have arrived at their first major crisis, less than two weeks before the opening ceremony.

The Australian Olympic Committee confirmed on Sunday evening that the athletes' village has been deemed uninhabitable in the short term due to significant plumbing and electrical concerns.

It is unclear if and when competitors will be able to move in, with the International Olympic Committee is set to undertake "stress tests" to deal with serious issues with plumbing and fire safety.

AOC chef de mission Kitty Chiller confirmed late on Sunday night (AEST) that Australian athletes would not be moving into the village, having hoped to do so on Sunday.

"For over a week now AOC staff have been working long hours to get our section of the village ready for our athletes," Chiller said in a statement.

"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.

"In operations areas water has come through the ceiling resulting in large puddles on the floor around cabling and wiring."

Chiller said the situation came to a head on Saturday night (Brazil time).

"We decided to do a "stress test" where taps and toilets were simultaneously turned on in apartments on several floors to see if the system could cope once the athletes are in-house.

"The system failed. Water came down walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was "shorting" in the electrical wiring. "

Chiller added that Great Britain and New Zealand contingents had been experiencing similar problems.

The Rio organising committee has sent in large teams of cleaners and repair staff, but could not say when the village would be open.

Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, hit back on Sunday:

https://twitter.com/adowniebrazil/status/757237114362851328

https://twitter.com/adowniebrazil/status/757259506980192256


The AOC arrived in Rio on the weekend. Staff will continue to work from a nearby hotel. The first Australian athletes, boxers and canoeists, also were scheduled to move into the village on Sunday. Contingency arrangements were being made as dawn broke in Rio. "From what we've seen," said a spokesman, "you wouldn't put people in there yet." Other countries found themselves in the same boat as Australia.

The unfinished state of the athletes village confirms some of the worst fears held about Rio's lack of preparedness for the Games. All Olympic cities end up in a last-minute flurry, but from accounts, Rio has left too much to too late. This builds on an impression formed by visitors to the World Cup of soccer in Brazil two years ago, that infrastructure would prove to be a big and perhaps insurmountable issue for the Olympic Games.

The timing of this latest drama is unfortunate, to say the least. All eyes were turning to Rio on Sunday as the IOC convened to consider throwing Russia out of the Games. This follows the release last week of a damning report on wholesale and state-sponsored doping of athletes in Russia up to and including the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. It was widely expected that the IOC would conclude that it had no choice except to exclude the entire Russian team.

In a small off-set, the AOC generally is satisfied with what it has seen so far of the level of security at the athletes village and in Rio generally.
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http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympic...letes-village-unliveable-20160724-gqcqxy.html
 
K

Kard8p3

Member
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Can we just stop this shit show now?
 
G

GringoSuave89

Banned
Olympics gonna Olympics.

Thought it seems far worse than usual. Between this and the possibility of all of Russia's competitors being banned, this is a pretty bad year.
 
E

ElBoxyBrown

Banned
When Australia, the land where every animal and insect is out to kill you, tells you your "uninhabitable" it's time to pack it up.
 
B

Big-E

Member
And people though the Russian doors and toilets were bad. China is corrupt to all hell, but at least they could build an athletes village. What's Brazil's excuse?
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was "shorting" in the electrical wiring. "
Click to expand...

That's a nice combination.
 
F

friskykillface

Banned
That's why it sucks that a lot of these athletes will only be going to this one and that's it

Just have it be in 3/4 locations and rotate , damn
 
N

Nemesis121

Member
-Plasma Reus- said:
How come The Olympics and World Cup are always such a disaster?
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Because they waste a ton of money to build new venues and in the process they fuck their own people over, billions wasted for 2-4 weeks...

They need to start putting these events in places already set to host without having to add a single new venue...
 
Y

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
People said this about Sochi too. Is it really that bad or is it being exaggerated? Though I don't think any delegation said the village was unlivable.
 
Pagusas

Pagusas

Elden Member
is it that hard to pay some goot US or EU contractors to send a crew of 200 down and fix the place up quickly? Its possible and the right crew could make that place shine. Yeah it will cost millions, but so would cancling the thing!
 
TheMan

TheMan

Member
Eh, there was all sorts of shit reported prior to Sochi, but once the games started, no one cared. News outlets always need a big story or crisis to harp on.
 
M

Madness

Member
Big-E said:
And people though the Russian doors and toilets were bad. China is corrupt to all hell, but at least they could build an athletes village. What's Brazil's excuse?
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China is corrupt but under the guise of nationalism and strict authoritarianism were able to build immaculate facilities and coordinate the games. Brazil has all the same issues without being authoritarian. Case in point look how much of an embarassment the commonwealth games were to India.
 
B

BigDug13

Member
Succinct Verbosity said:
London olympics were great. The Australian Olympics were great too coincidentally.
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They shouldn't allow developing nations to bid for this shit. It doesn't earn them anything but fucking over their own people for subpar preparations. These countries are not equipped to host this shit and it only hurts their own economy to try.

Of course when first world countries host these events they are more successful.
 
J

JABEE

Member
MarkMclovin said:
This news happens every time. It always ends up being fine.
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Misread your post. But this is correct. I guess we'll see on this one though.

The Brazil Olympics has been a political hotbed from the beginning. Building huge stadiums and athletic facility in poor areas of the country. Taking people's homes to build it when there really isn't a large enough market to make those huge public stadium projects worth it.
 
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