In Rio, sailors compete with constant health scare
Print Edition
THE bad water quality at Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay puts Paralympic sailors in constant fear of their health during competitions with organizers having failed to live up to their promises, Paralympic champion Heiko Kroeger said.
The experienced German sailor, who won a gold medal at the Sydney 2000 and silver at the London 2012 Paralympics, said sailors in wheelchairs would be especially vulnerable in the polluted waters during the Paralympics in the Brazilian city this fall. “Usually when you are sailing you open your mouth and take in some water to refresh yourself,” Kroeger said a day after returning from a competition in Rio.
“But in Rio last week, mouths and noses stayed shut and heads turned away from the spray,” he said.
“I have been sailing a long time but I have never seen that happening.
“There is a constant fear in our heads, a fear that you could get sick,” said Kroeger, who also sailed in the bay back in September. “That of course affects the competition because you know that if you get sick you are out.”
When Rio won the right in 2009 to stage the Olympics and Paralympics, the city had promised to cut the amount of raw sewage flowing into the bay by 80 percent but has since confirmed it will not meet that target.
The bay, which will also host the sailing, open water swimming and triathlon races during the Olympics in August, has dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria in the water, independent studies have shown.
Biologists in 2014 said rivers leading into the bay contained a superbacteria that is resistant to antibiotics and can cause urinary, gastrointestinal and pulmonary infections.
Kroeger also blamed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for failing to pressure Rio organizers to deliver Games that would protect the health and safety of the athletes.
“A city was picked to host the Games but their promise has not been kept with the IOC being weak in pushing the organizers to deliver,” Kroeger said.
“You would expect the IOC’s top priority to be the safety of the athletes.”
The IOC has ordered testing for disease-causing viruses after taking advice from the World Health Organization but has said it is confident water quality at the time of the Games will be safe for the athletes.
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