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Olympic Swimmers 'Certain' To Pick Up Virus From Three Teaspoons of Rio Water (independent.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Independent: The Associated Press has released a 16-month-long study that shows just days before the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro begin, the waterways in the city are teeming with dangerous viruses and bacteria. The report says both athletes and tourists are at risk of getting ill from the contaminated water. "The first results of the study published over a year ago showed viral levels at up to 1.7 million times what would be considered worrisome in the United States or Europe," reports The Independent. "At those concentrations, swimmers and athletes who ingest just three teaspoons of water are almost certain to be infected with viruses that can cause stomach and respiratory illnesses and, more rarely, heart and brain inflammation -- although whether they actually fall ill depends on a series of factors including the strength of the individual's immune system." Many of the athletes have been taking antibiotics, bleaching oars and donning plastic suits and gloves to prevent illnesses, but antibiotics combat bacterial infections, not viruses. The AP investigation found that infectious adenovirus readings turned up at nearly 90 percent of the test sites over 16 months of testing. What's more is that "the beaches often have levels of bacterial markers for sewage pollution that would be cause for concern abroad -- and sometimes even exceed Rio state's lax water safety standards," reports The Independent.
They've known for years and it is not uncommon for the Olympic city to host an event in another city (e.g. London held Sailing etc in Dorset), why did they HAVE to have these events in the dangerous Rio waters? I mean sure, a city that is on the coast, unlike others like the aforementioned London, COULD host water sports IF there are suitable waters. In this case there are no suitable waters, why couldn't they just move the event? It is not like they spent money for infrastructure for Sailing - in fact they didn't spend the promised money for sewage treatment, so they could just move the venue at any time.
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The poor people of Rio are paying for those games with their health and their lives. Sociopath is too strong a word but be honest: how they suffer doesn't bother you or anyone else living it up at the Olympic party at public expense. http://money.cnn.com/gallery/n... http://www.businessinsider.com... https://www.theguardian.com/sp... http://www.theatlantic.com/bus... http://www.economist.com/blogs...
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"The first results of the study published over a year ago showed viral levels at up to 1.7 million times what would be considered worrisome in the United States or Europe,...the beaches often have levels of bacterial markers for sewage pollution that would be cause for concern abroad -- and sometimes even exceed Rio state's lax water safety standards..."
When viral levels are that high, why are you trying to convince anyone that Rio even has a documented "water safety standard"? You've got to be fucking kidding me with that shit.
With those kinds of "standards", bleach would considered a safe alternative to drinking water, asbestos is just a "mild irritant" in construction, and DDT is considered a flavor additive in food production.
No wonder no one gives a shit about Zika infections anymore.
There is a 10km open water event, so your statement that this is not a factor is incorrect.
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
The Olympics are kind of a showcase for random sports, as well as an opportunity to represent your country (whatever that means), but I bet it is not considered the end-all event in most sports.
Depends on the sport. In my sport (wrestling) the Olympics is considered the pinnacle of the sport for better or worse. That's true for quite a few other sports. Gymnastics, swimming, track & field, figure skating, etc all have the Olympics as THE premiere event. I'm not entirely convinced this is good for those particular sports but that's the way it is right now. Some sports like road cycling, tennis, and several others the Olympics is a respected event but not the end-all-be-all of the sport. For example in cycling the premiere event is the Tour de France. In tennis it is probably Wimbledon.
Most sports that are in the Olympics have the Olympics as the top event on their calendar. Otherwise there wouldn't be much point to the Olympics really.
If an adult wants to take some risks to win an Olympic gold medal, that's their decision and they get to live with the consequences. It doesn't hurt you in the least so I'm not sure why you are bent out of shape over it.
I don't usually mind that adults go out and play games; this instance is a little different though - they are risking an infectious disease. Their "Me Me Me!" attitude actually carries with it harm that I cannot avoid. I'm all for a mandatory quarantine for everyone going to infectious areas, but that isn't what is being proposed, is it?
And spare me the entertainment argument - sure it's entertainment, but that doesn't mean I have to consider it any more important than other entertainment like keeping up with the Kardashians.
I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
The remaining events they're in aren't as readily impacted by long-term doping, only short-term doping and other exploits (such as hyper-oxygenated blood for cycling) which all of their athletes are being invasively triple-checked for at this point.
Sadly not true at all. Russian wrestling has the largest number of positive doping results for Russian athletes after athletics and weightlifting. I've been in that sport for 35 years and I can assure you that both long and short term doping would help a lot in wrestling. Same with swimming, gymnastics, and a variety of other sports. What people don't realize about doping is that the most useful thing about it is that it reduces recovery time. It allows you to train more and at a higher intensity. This can make a huge difference even in skill based sports like wrestling.
Furthermore you can check all you want but it isn't hard to pass a drug test. Lance Armstrong was tested hundreds of times over years and never tested positive. With the aid of a doctor it's almost trivial to avoid testing positive even if someone is using something that the tests can detect. Which often isn't the case.
So yeah, Russian got a big bucket of banhammer to the noggin' this year, and I expect several more of their athletes to get stuck by the at-games testing and DQ'ed.
Not big enough. The Russians engaged in state sponsored doping. The ONLY response to that that has any meaning is to ban the country that engages in it. All of them. The government of Russia and their sports ministry engaged in systematic corruption of sport. You cannot remedy that by banning individual athletes. By the IOC being unwilling to make the tough decision they have effectively sanctioned state sponsored doping. Every country can look at Russia now and rightly think "there is no punishment for state sponsored doping programs". If an athlete tests positive they just throw that athlete under the bus and send the next one out there. Economists call this moral hazard and that is exactly what is happening here.