RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Olympic sailors on Saturday checked out the venue for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Many didn’t like what they saw.
Denmark’s Allan Norregaard won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Games. He calls Guanabara Bay “the most polluted place I’ve ever been.”
Rio’s local Olympic organizing committee has promised the pollution will be cleaned up when the Olympics open in 2 1/2 years. Government officials have pledged to reduce 80 percent of the pollution flowing into the bay.
But the sailors doubt the problem can be fixed after festering for decades, and many worry about their health. Environmentalists call measures being taken “stopgap,” likely to mask the problem and not cure it.
