Rio 2016: Olympic Village scrambles to fix problems after Australian complaints

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Dancers rehearse before a welcoming ceremony for athletes at the Olympic Village / AFP: Yasuyoshi Chiba
Even Brazilian athletes who were meant to have started taking up lodgings in the brand-new complex from Sunday were being kept in hotels instead.
Rio's Olympic organisers said such teething problems plagued all Olympic Games. They promised that "adjustments" were being made to resolve the problems.
The Olympic Games - the first to be held in South America - are to open on August 5, less than two weeks away.
But Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, has reportedly tried to laugh off the matter following criticisms from Australian chef de mission Kitty Chiller.
"We are going to make the Australians feel at home here. I'm almost putting a kangaroo out front to jump for them," he said.
He also boasted that the Village was "more beautiful and better" than the one in Sydney in the 2000 Olympics.
The lack of preparedness in the Olympic Village was another embarrassing blow for host Brazil, which is struggling to show all will be well with the Games of the 31st Olympiad.
It is already facing low ticket sales, general public apathy amid a deep recession, fears over the Zika virus, and a spike in street crime as police complain of lack of resources.
Australia's delegation highlighted the poor state of the Village, 31-building complex located in the Barra da Tijuca district in the west of Rio de Janeiro designed to house more than 18,000 athletes and coaching staff over the coming weeks.
"Problems include blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed and dirty floors in need of a massive clean," Australia's chef de mission Kitty Chiller said in a statement.
During a test involving taps and toilets being turned on in apartments on several floors, she said "water came down walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was 'shorting' in the electrical wiring."
"This is my fifth Olympics Games, I have never experienced a Village in this lack of state of readiness at this point in time."
Chiller added that, "in our mind, our building is not habitable" and the Australian team would stay on in nearby hotels.
But she said a team of plumbers was already at work to fix the problems, and "I am reasonably confident that we will be able to enter the Village on Wednesday."
The rest of the Village, she said, "is one of the best" she had seen.
Source: abc.net.au
Gidabuday Sports Tourism Foundation is a Non Profit Organization based in Arusha. It's main purpose is to promote, sensitize and enforce education through sports, as well as to search and develop new talents for sports from young people from marginalized communities all over the country.

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