Rio Promises Blue Water, but Odd Green May Be Spreading

First the diving pool, now the water polo pool
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 10, 2016 12:37 PM CDT
Rio Promises Blue Water, but Odd Green May Be Spreading
The diving pool at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center appears a murky green, in stark contrast to the water in a second pool, left.   (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

If you happened to tune into a diving event Tuesday, you probably noticed the pool at Rio's outdoor aquatics center was "as green as split-pea soup," as the National Post puts it—or "close to the color swatch movie set designers turn to when they want to make something look radioactive," per Vox. Indeed, just a day earlier the outdoor pool had appeared crystal clear. Vox floated several theories, including an insane amount of urine in the pool, or perhaps a corroding pipe. (BuzzFeed also rounds up theories and reaction.) An official statement from Rio's organizing committee said the cause was under investigation, though a spokesman late Tuesday chalked it up to a "proliferation of algae" whipped up by "heat and a lack of wind," reports the AP.

"it will be blue from now on," he promised. But as an image at Gizmodo shows, the problem appears to have shown up Wednesday in the neighboring water polo pool. Officials had previously said the green water posed no danger to athletes, and one half of Canada's women’s synchronized diving pair, who won bronze on the 10-meter platform Tuesday, certainly didn't mind. "[Diving] is a visual sport and you have to see the water," Meaghan Benfeito tells the Post. "The fact that it was completely different from the sky really helped us." (Team USA won multiple gold medals in a separate pool Tuesday.)

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