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Rio 2016 - Olympic Village


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11 hours ago, Ikarus360 said:

Either this is a massive damage control or they twisted the Mayor's words to extreme levels. What the hell?

Unfortunately it seems that the confusion was caused by our own press. And was no translation error, this was intentional! Estadão published a note in were the mayor said "Our village is better and more beautiful than Sydney." He never said that! And then someone from group Folha interviewing someone from Australia delegation said the mayor had proposed the kangaroo as a solution, omitting the rest of the statement. I don't know if you guys remember, but these two newspapers of São Paulo are the same that was publishing negative things of Rio during the bid in a clear campaign against the election of Rio.

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Rio 2016: Australia softens Olympic village stance

 

Australia’s Olympic chef de mission Kitty Chiller has backtracked from her criticism of the Rio Olympic village, stressing her complaints were not a slur on Rio or Brazil.

Ms Chiller is to “have a date” with the Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes tomorrow, when the official handover will occur and Australian team members will move in.

Ms Chiller defended raising the issues in a high profile way to put pressure on the organisers.

Australia had complained about water seeping down the athletes accommodation walls and significant problems with plumbing once the showers, taps and toilets were tested. Ms Chiller said she would “fight to the death” for the Australian team members to have the best preparation for the Games.

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View of the Australian team's apartments at the Olympic Village. Picture: AFP

“This is not a slur in any way shape or form,” she said, explaining that several National Olympic Committees, including Great Britain, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Brazil and Japan were involved in trying to help solve the problems.

“The complaints were not against Brazil, they were not against Rio, they were not against the people of Rio or Brazilians, this is a beautiful country with beautiful people.’’

Ms Chiller added that the night of the complaints she told the Australian team’s Brazilian Olympic assistants ‘please do not think what we are doing is against you as a people or as a country, because it is not’.

The Australian Olympic Committee has paid for cleaning and expert contractors to do work on the unfinished accommodations, and other workers supplied by the organising committee had fast-tracked the essential repairs and made the housing block safe.

She said a list of 200 diagnostic problems had been whittled down to single figures.

“We have 15 floors in building 23 and three more floors will be cleaned tonight,” she said.

Around 30 beds still have problems with leakages and will take longer to fix.

“The workers have been working very hard, we have had some very skilled workers, and it looks like we can move in on Wednesday,” she said.

Australia’s boxing team, which is staying in a media village while their athletes accommodation is finished said the delay in moving in was not a problem.

Australia’s female boxer Shelley Watts said the village looks amazing and she was looking forward to moving in.

“I haven’t been concerned about the delays, I have just had a smile on my face, what Rio has done is amazing and I am grateful that the IOC and the AOC has made safety the number one priority for us. I am really excited to be here.”

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/rio-olympics/rio-2016-australia-softens-olympic-village-stance/news-story/d94b215e07dfc3a1ae03e602a109376d

 

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5 countries wildly unimpressed with the state of the Olympic Village

Olympic teams are complaining about the pathetic state of Rio’s athletes village-The Washington Post

The latest crisis began on Sunday, when the Australian team said its building in the athletes village was uninhabitable because of problems with plumbing and electricity.

Now, with those issues resolved, the Australians have begun moving in. But other teams have complained about conditions in many of their apartments. The Argentine committee said that two of the five floors of its building are uninhabitable and that it is renting apartments nearby for staff. The Belarus Olympic committee published photos of dirty windows and blocked drains on its official page. Swedish athletes reportedly arrived at their accommodations and then left in disgust, while a Kenyan wrote "Please fix my toilet" on a notice board in the Olympic Village.

A squad of 600 plumbers and electricians is working to repair everything.

“The construction work was 100 percent finished,” a spokeswoman said in an email. “No kind of structural problem was found.” She spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing internal regulations.

Rio 2016 is renting the complex of 3,604 apartments from Ilha Pura.

Andrada, the spokesman for Rio 2016, said the complex had been delivered to organizers at the end of May but water and electricity were connected in June.

“The main cause for the delay was that water and electricity were connected too late" and there was no time to check the units before they were handed to the national Olympic committees, he said.

Andrada said it was not clear whose fault that was.

British and U.S. teams said they had been working with organizers to resolve some issues. The Dutch team brought two technicians of its own after facing similar issues at Olympic Villages in London and in the Russian city of Sochi. But Rio was worse, said spokesman John van Vliet.

“It looks absolutely fantastic from the outside,” van Vliet said of the complex. Problems with "water, electricity and gas pipes" emerged once the team members started using the apartments, he said.

The Argentines said two of their five floors were not usable and that they were renting apartments nearby for technical staff so athletes could stay in the apartments that were in good shape.

“Rio says they will finish, but we can’t run any risks,” Gerardo Werthein, president of the Argentine Olympic Committee, told reporters in Buenos Aires this week. “We know that this is a serious emergency in Rio, and all we can do is fix it.”

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Quote

 

IOC/Ian Jones - IOC President Thomas Bach in the Olympic Village
Date 28 Jul 2016
 

IOC President settles in at the Olympic Village

IOC President Thomas Bach officially moved into the Olympic Village this morning.

The President made himself comfortable in his room before meeting dozens of athletes for lunch. He is due to sleep at the Village during the Games as often as possible. His room is in the same block at the Refugee Olympic Team just a floor below.

 

IOC/Ian Jones

The President who won a gold medal at the Olympic Games Montreal 1976 said: "The Olympic Village is the heart of the Olympic Games and you can really feel the excitement growing as the Games approach. Here in the Village athletes from around the world can come together as competitors and share their experiences."
 
The Village which opened his doors on 24 July is already accommodating some 2000 athletes and officials.

 

IOC/Ian Jones
 


 

 
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So Rio Olympic organizers want to put the blame for the Olympic village problems on sabotage.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/story/_/id/17164278/olympic-organizers-suspect-isolated-sabotage-village

Quote

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Sabotage by unhappy workers may have caused water and gas leaks, blocked toilets and electrical faults that slowed teams from moving into the athletes' village, Rio Olympic organizers said Thursday.

"We are considering isolated cases, but we haven't seen enough to say it was an organized sabotage thing," Rio spokesman Mario Andrada said. He said the most likely cause was what he called "organizational problems."

All 31 buildings at the massive compound for 18,000 athletes and staff are due to be ready at the end of Thursday, with the games opening in just over a week. Andrada says about 400 of the 3,600 rooms in the complex had defects.

South America's first games have been plagued by problems, including the Zika virus, severe water pollution, security worries and slow ticket sales. But the slipshod construction is the first problem directly touching many teams and athletes.

Australia refused to check in at Sunday's official opening, setting off public complaints by at least a dozen teams. Those complaints ranged from water dripping from ceilings and walls, the smell of gas, electrical shorts, and stopped-up toilet bowls -- or no toilet bowls at all.

Andrada described a "wild scramble" last weekend to find 650 plumbers and electricians.

"Imagine, this was on a weekend in Rio," he said. "We called literally all the constructions companies. We literally called every plumber in town."

Rio is a relaxed beach town, where informal dress is normal and the work schedule is negotiable.

"One US official told me the workers were unprepared, working with water on the floor, working with electricity and wearing no protection; wearing flip-flops," Andrada said. "But that's how we live here. Guys work with flip-flops. But the guys are technicians and know how to work."

Rio organizers said 1,129 athletes and 2,449 staff members would be living in the village on Thursday. The total will swell in the next week as teams arrive from private training camps.

Brazilian labor inspectors on Wednesday said they would fine the organizing committee nearly $100,000 (about 315,000 reals) for hiring workers without proper contracts required by law. It said about 630 workers did not enjoy benefits that protect them from workplace injuries.

Andrada said the committee would challenge the fine.

"We might get fined, but not that amount, and we have 10 days to show the documents," Andrada said.

 

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2 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

Why are they allowing IDENTIFICATION on the outside balconies?  :blink:  That's an absolute Security NO-NO!!  Now an outsider knows where the major nationalities are residing and can TARGET those if they can break through!   Hello, Munich 1972!!  THIS is by far THE STUPIDEST FOLLY OF THIS VILLAGE!!! 

 

London got away with it ...

OLYM120803-2826.jpg

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3 hours ago, thatsnotmypuppy said:

96466613-view-of-the-controversial-boxin

 

Vancouver too...

 
 
 

Really stupid.  What a short memory the IOC has.  

And I still remember my first interview with LAOOC in 1984.  While waiting to be called, I asked to use the Rest room.  They said "Hang on one sec."  A male staffer then accompanied me to the Men's Room and actually kept me completely within view while I peed.  I can not forget that interview -- ever I was both stunned and impressed at how seriously they took security.  Now this ... :(

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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Balconies or not, terrorist will figure another kind of attack anyway. Remember they love to be unpredictable.

Also, our national delegation also complained about the bad state of the bathrooms and water leaks. Apparently they had to move them to another rooms which had zero problems.

And that apologist excuse about putting the blame on the workers is one of the most pathetic things i've seen so far of this organization. The sabotage thing sounds almost identical to the excuses our own government use here to justify our economic crisis. 

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37 minutes ago, Rob. said:

Rio, London AND Vancouver. Three organising committees which spent probably £2bn between them on security but somehow forgot to ask Myles!

 
 
1

Yeah, really quite stupid of them.  

You were saying about 2 billion worth of security??

http://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1040122/police-take-over-rio-2016-venue-security-after-private-firm-sacked-with-week-to-go 

I guess Munich 1972 was just a conspiracy fantasy in your eyes?  :rolleyes: 

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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Rio 2016: Australian team evacuates Olympic Village after fire, Kitty Chiller furious over silenced alarms

The Chef de Mission of Australia's Olympic team Kitty Chiller is meeting with Olympic Village and IOC officials after a small fire at the team's accommodation revealed fire alarms had been silenced.

About 100 officials and athletes were briefly evacuated when the fire broke out in a car park rubbish bin.

It is believed the fire was caused by a cigarette. The Olympic Village is a non-smoking venue.

"What we have subsequently found is that the fire alarms had been silenced while they were carrying out maintenance on the building next door to ours," she said.

"We hadn't been advised that the fire alarms were silenced, so how we found out was basically smoke in the corridors and stairwells.

"It's absolutely not satisfactory at all."

HT_AUS_RIO_12x5_1600.jpg

Fire in Rio's Olympic Village Forces Evacuation of 100 Australian Athletes, Officials

Kitty Chiller, the Chef de Mission of Australia's Olympic team, said during a press conference, "The stairwells filled with smoke, but the fire was confined to the carpark. No one was injured."

The fire was extinguished by the fire brigade and athletes and officials returned to their quarters after approximately 30 minutes, she said.

Chiller said the fire is believed to have been caused by a cigarette in a trash can, even though the Olympic Village is a non-smoking area. "What we think has happened is a cigarette has been thrown in a rubbish bin, or on rubbish, and that's what's started the fire."

She continued, "There's a lot of rubbish around the place which a lot of countries have been talking about for the last few days, left from contractors, left from workers. There are a lot of smokers. This is my real issue. There are a lot of workers and contractors smoking in the village. The athletes' village is a non smoking venue. There's a lot of people just walking around, smoking."

 

Eduardo-Paes-poltico-em-desespero.jpg

"....these Australians are such troublemakers...this Chiller chic is killin' me!"

 

Edited by paul
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