Rio’s dirty water ‘not a big problem’ for swimming boss

Water quality at next year’s Olympic venues is “not a big problem”, according to the head of swimming’s governing body.

An investigation last week showed a serious health risk to the 1,400 Olympic athletes who will compete at water venues around Rio de Janeiro that are rife with human waste and sewage.

But FINA President Julio Maglione said that water quality is “not a big problem at the moment”.

He added that FINA is in contact with the International Triathlon Union, which held an Olympic test event at Copacabana last week, to track the health of the triathletes who competed.

“They were swimming in this water, and they’re going to make an examination of all the athletes that competed,” Maglione said.

The study showed that the spot where athletes were entering the water on Copacabana Beach, the venue for marathon swimming, had a minimal reading of over two million human adenovirus per litre.

This is 2,000 times the reading that water experts in the US say would be considered highly alarming if seen on beaches in the US or Europe.