The saga of the water in the diving and water polo pools at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center in Rio de Janeiro is, shall we say, a very colorful tale. When the Olympics began on Aug. 5, the pools were bright blue. Since then, they have turned a gross, murky shade of green. The Rio organizers claim they have been running tests on the pool water, and that it is not tainted or dangerous or anything like that. Nevertheless, over the weekend officials drained all the green water from the synchronized swimming pool—that’s 3,725,000 liters, according to the New York Times’ Sarah Lyall—and refilled it with blue liquid extracted from a practice pool.* But everything is perfectly fine, really!
Why did the water turn green? No one really knows.
Lyall has done a good job collating the Rio organizers’ provisional explanations of the water’s changing hue. At first, they claimed the transformation was due to unexpected algae blooms caused by “heat and lack of wind.” Next, they dismissed the algae theory and put the blame on decreased alkalinity levels caused by an excess of activity in the pools—who could’ve guessed that people would be in the water—and also on the fact that it rained. (Weather!) Then, FINA, the international swimming federation, blamed a dysfunctional filtration process and suggested the greenification came about because the “water tanks ran out of some of the chemicals used in the water treatment process.” As of Monday, the working explanation is that an incompetent handyman accidentally poured 160 liters of hydrogen peroxide into the pools, which neutralized the existing chlorine, thus allowing algae to proliferate and give the water a greenish hue.
The inescapable takeaway here is that nobody has any idea what’s going on. But at least the explanations are getting funnier and more elaborate as time goes by. What excuses will the Rio organizers come up with next?
Tuesday, Aug. 16: The pool was dosed with expired meldonium as part of a Russian revenge plot against the IOC. The good news is that the pool now has an excellent forehand.
Wednesday, Aug. 17: The managers of the aquatic center wanted to get a jump on St. Patrick’s Day. Did we tell you about our drink specials? Try the Brazilian Irishman! (That’s a Guinness with green pool water.)
Thursday, Aug. 18: It’s the handiwork of the notorious Green River Killer.
Friday, Aug. 19: It’s “opposite week” in Rio, which also explains why the Olympic golf course is bright blue and weightlifters jerk before they clean.
Saturday, Aug. 20: Marc Summers sneaked into the aquatics center in the dead of night and “slimed” the pool as a viral marketing stunt for an upcoming reboot of Double Dare.
Sunday, Aug. 21: The Jolly Green Giant died at the bottom of the pool, and they only found out about it because of the smell, and the fact that the entire pool turned green.
*Correction, Aug. 16, 2016: This post originally misstated which pool was drained at the Rio Olympics. It was the synchornized swimming pool, not the diving pool.
