Ongoing Rio Olympics Disaster Thread

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

The goggles do nothing?

Curse you!

[Goodlad]

As a professional pool guy this seems absolutely insane to me. The explanations being offered are pretty scattered as well. Everything from too many swimmers, to running out of chemicals, to alkalinity problems.

If it was an algae thing it should have been cleared up overnight. Crank your chlorinators to 11, let the filters clear out the algae, add sodium thiosulfate to reduce chlorine levels to a safe amount.

What seems most likely to me is that the pH dropped low enough to strip the copper from the heat exchangers.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Article on why everything seems to be going on at midnight local time and how NBC and their second rate crappy coverage controls the Olympics.

No wonder no one wants to host anymore. I can't imagine being a regular Japanese person excited to have this huge world event in your city and all the main events are over right around the time you wake up every day because some tv network halfway around the world forced the ioc to schedule everything at stupid times.

But it'll be back to mornings for the next Olympics four years from now in 2020. They're in Tokyo, where prime events will need to happen between 7 and 9 a.m. local time, if they're going to hit prime time back in the U.S.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/rio-oly...aces-1.3715538

[GirlySports]

It's up to Tokyo.

When the Olympics were in Sydney the Aussie told NBC to stick it where the sun don't shine and ran everything their time.

But they're Aussies.

Brazil is a late place anyways. Copa Libertadores matches start late after soap operas. I had a buddy there and asked him if he went to any soccer matches. He answered are you nuts? I'm not taking the subway home at midnight. That's why the crowds are bad.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

The article actually mentions the soap operas thing. It is hilarious how obsessed brazillians are with soap operas.

A quarter of the entire population watches the evening telenovelas — Brazilian soap operas — which broadcast at 6, 7 and 9 p.m.

The network almost never pre-empts them. Not for elections and rarely for anything else.

"They did this only to show the (Olympic) opening ceremony," Brazilian TV critic Mauricio Stycer told CBC. "It was huge. It was really exceptional. Globo is very afraid of not showing the most popular telenovela."

And it has not interrupted those programs for any sport. Events are happening, but Brazilians can't see them live — frankly, they prefer the telenovelas to the Olympics anyway. So the late start for key events, which benefits NBC, doesn't hurt the Brazilian audience.

[nik-]

I just realized that Madrid was the runner up to host these Olympics. That would have been stellar, Madrid is amazing.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by nik-

I just realized that Madrid was the runner up to host these Olympics. That would have been stellar, Madrid is amazing.

In terms of economics, isn't Spain just as poor as Brazil right now? They have been struggling for many years.

[nik-]

Their economy isn't good, but at least you can walk down Gran Via without someone putting a pistol in your face.

edit: and no, they're nowhere near as poor as Brazil. They just have brutal unemployment.

[Drake]

Ryan Lochte confirms he and three other swimmers were robbed at gunpoint, despite IOC denying it.

http://deadspin.com/report-ryan-loch...ium=socialflow

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Article on why everything seems to be going on at midnight local time and how NBC and their second rate crappy coverage controls the Olympics.

No wonder no one wants to host anymore. I can't imagine being a regular Japanese person excited to have this huge world event in your city and all the main events are over right around the time you wake up every day because some tv network halfway around the world forced the ioc to schedule everything at stupid times.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/rio-oly...aces-1.3715538

I can't stand the NBC coverage at all. But without the big TV money, the Olympics wouldn't be what they are.

I guess some would say they'd be better.

[Fuzz]

http://gizmodo.com/we-finally-know-w...ree-1785276491

Looks like someone screwed up and added 160 litres of hydrogen peroxide that neutered the chlorine. You would think they'd have some sort of, I dunno, record of what was going in the water so they could track these things sooner than a week.

[Baron von Kriterium]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

http://gizmodo.com/we-finally-know-w...ree-1785276491

Looks like someone screwed up and added 160 litres of hydrogen peroxide that neutered the chlorine. You would think they'd have some sort of, I dunno, record of what was going in the water so they could track these things sooner than a week.

Don't worry; the IOC chemists are working hard on this issue.

http://i.imgur.com/4oaj8P1.gifv

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Baron von Kriterium

Don't worry; the IOC chemists are working hard on this issue.

http://i.imgur.com/4oaj8P1.gifv

My favorite quote from the person responsible for the pool was that 'chemistry is not an exact science...'.

Yeah, neither is rocket science.

[Goodlad]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

http://gizmodo.com/we-finally-know-w...ree-1785276491

Looks like someone screwed up and added 160 litres of hydrogen peroxide that neutered the chlorine. You would think they'd have some sort of, I dunno, record of what was going in the water so they could track these things sooner than a week.

This is really a sort of fascinating/horrifying screw up. When you combine chlorine with hydrogen peroxide you end up with hydrochloric acid, which the ORP sensors used to monitor chlorine levels would recognize as an oxidizer. This would prevent the automated system from adding additional chlorine to the pool. OTO and DPD testers would also both show chlorine in the water. I can understand the frustration of the pool operators responsible for the facility, and why it took so long to solve.



Clearly the independent contractor who added the hydrogen peroxide never informed anyone he had. It likely never occurred to anyone that someone would add hydrogen peroxide to a chlorine facility. Eventually the chlorine would have used up the hydrogen peroxide and the pool would have gone back to normal. If this hadn't been such a high-profile screw up they probably would never have solved it.

Edit:Full disclosure, I actually had to consult my sister (a chemist) about this because I couldn't figure out why the probes would be fooled. Any mistakes in the chemistry side are likely on my end.

[Frequitude]

The highlight of the Olympics for me so far has been my newfound knowledge of pool chemistry.

[HotHotHeat]

I love how CP has a pool expert.

[calgarygeologist]

I feel really bad for the paralympic athletes. Apparently the Rio games are out of money and funds that are supposed to pay for paralympic athletes and coaches to come to Brazil haven't been made available. They have been using paralympic funds to pay for the regular games.

Additionally, volunteers are quitting because of shortages, additional demands on their time, long shifts and lack of food.

Sounds pretty rough.

[Senator Clay Davis]

IOC gonna IOC. There's a reason no one should ever want to host the Olympics, why help make these #######s rich?

Rio de Janeiro authorities arrested IOC executive board member Patrick Hickey on Wednesday morning, according to multiple reports. The head of the European Olympic committee is being accused of illegally scalping tickets for the Summer Games currently being held in Rio.

The Irish Independent reports that Hickey was arrested in Rio’s Barra neighborhood Wednesday morning and taken to the hospital after feeling ill at the moment of his arrest. His credentials were also seized by police.

The AP reports that Hickey is suspected of participating in the action “with at least six others” and that agents have seized more than 1,000 tickets that had been sold for high fees after being allocated by the Olympic Council of Ireland. Another Irish executive was arrested in the same probe last week.

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/report...111535599.html

[Flaming Choy]

Boxing is fixed, water is wet.

http://deadspin.com/5931226/was-this...ng-match-fixed

At least this one has a happy ending as the Japanese filed a protest and got the results overturned. I don't know if the Azerbaijani fighter was dominating the first couple rounds, but this definitely looks sketchy.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

IOC gonna IOC. There's a reason no one should ever want to host the Olympics, why help make these #######s rich?



https://sports.yahoo.com/news/report...111535599.html

Why would you buy scalped tickets? Seams every event has loads of empty seats. Maybe just for the closing ceremonies?