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What Olympic Events Will Be Held In Brazil’s Polluted Waterways? What Are the Athletes at Risk of Contracting?

Brian BeltzBrian Beltz

In case you haven’t heard, the 2016 Summer Olympics are shaping up to be a real mess – a potential train wreck, in fact.

Athletes that arrived early have been robbed at gunpoint. The newly built (and still being finished) metro lines haven’t been tested. Olympic Village is uninhabitable. That whole Zika virus thing.

Oh yeah, the waters that over 1,400 athletes will be competing in are incredibly polluted.  Like, don’t open your mouth -even a little bit – because you’ll swallow poop and get sick immediately, polluted. The most recent reports have stated that ingested even three tablespoons of ‘water’ to be almost certain of contracting a virus.

Multiple samples have picked up dangerous levels of human adenovirus, rotavirus, enterovirus and fecal coliforms in the waters off Copacabana Beach, near Marina da Gloria in Guanabara Bay and Rodrigo de Freitas Lake.

Felipe Menegaz [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

2016 Summer Games Venues Image by Felipe Menegaz [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

These and other present viruses and bacteria can cause a wide range of maladies ( and a whole lot of ‘itis-es):

*This is far from a complete list.  Good luck Olympians, you all deserve a medal.

As aforementioned, nearly 1,400 athletes will be competing in these polluted waters, here is a list of the events:

[wpdatatable id=14]

*Sailing and Rowing have several different events

Let’s talk about the marathon swim and the triathlon. While those competing in boating events – canoeing and sailing – will absolutely be at risk from spray, wind and falling into the water, marathon swimmers and triathletes will be spending a considerable amount of time fully submersed in – for lack of a better term – poo water. The marathon swim events will put 50 athletes – 25 men and 25 women – in the water for a 10 km race. The triathlons will run 100 triathletes – 50 men and 50 women – through the much for a 1.5 km swim.

Given the reports, it won’t be a surprise when athletes get sick. We can only hope that none of them fall seriously ill. That a taste of glory is worth the taste of, well, waste.

The world is watching and Rio isn’t ready.

*Featured Image By Chensiyuan (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Brian Beltz
Author

With a degree in Mass Communications and Journalism, Brian brings over four years of experience writing for the legal industry to Dopplr.

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