Rio's 2016 Sailing Venue is Filled With Garbage and Sometimes Corpses
(Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The 2016 Rio Olympics have been getting some bad press for how far behind they are on construction of venues and infrastructure, but a new report on the Brazilian sailing venue takes the cake.
The planning committee intends to have both sailing and windsurfing events in Guanabara Bay, a site at which Brazilian Lars Grael, who has two bronze medals in Olympic sailing events, says he has encountered bodies floating on several occasions, according to the Sporting News.
Setting aside that Guanabara Bay could be the opening scene for an episode of Law & Order, the report also says Olympians will have to contend with the 80 to 100 tons of trash the city dumps into the bay each day, along with untreated sewage that flows into the waterway. Biologist Mario Moscatelli has studied the bay for many years, and is not optimistic about its future.
"The government could deploy aircraft carriers to collect the bay’s garbage and the problem would not be solved. The bay is still a latrine. It’s an insult to Rio’s people to say it will be clean for the Olympics."
Olympians have even been cautioned not to touch the water, which seems difficult considering, you know, their entire sports is in the water.
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