A diver takes part in a training session after the water in the diving pool turned green in the Maria Lenk Aquatic Center at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
Olympic divers were turfed out of the Rio pool and told to train on dry land on Friday as officials rushed to turn the water from unsightly green back to blue — and one competitor complained it smelled like farts.
Organizers admitted the process of cleaning up the pool, which suddenly turned green this week, was a longer and more complicated process than they thought.
The shutdown comes after water polo players, using the adjacent pool which also went green, complained of stinging eyes after technicians bumped up the chlorine levels to turn it back to blue.
“We learned that chemistry is not an exact science,” said Games spokesman Mario Andrada said.
“It went longer than expected. We understood that this morning a training session was cancelled because we need to have the water still so we can clean it first.”
British diver Tom Daley reacted to the closure by tweeting: “Hopefully that means we haven’t been diving in anything too bad the last couple of days!”
Perhaps the closure was just as well, as Germany’s Stephan Feck reported that the venue smelled like farts.
“The moment you want to do some workout and the pool is closed — the whole venue smells like somebody has fart,” he wrote on Facebook, with a picture of himself holding his nose at the pool.
Andrada again insisted the water wasn’t dangerous for athletes, but he said that technicians had eased back on the chlorine after the complaints of stinging eyes.
“We reduced immediately the quantity (of chlorine). We retested the water, it’s totally within the parameters and health specialists… are on top of this issue,” he said.
“We understand that the athletes had access to a dry facility where they can at least do some training. Not ideal, but we believe that fixing the water and making it look the way it should is a priority in this case.”