Olympians have refused to move into Brazil’s new athletes’ village after finding blocked toilets, water running down the walls and the smell of gas.
The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) have deemed the accommodation in Rio de Janeiro ‘uninhabitable’, less than two weeks before the opening ceremony, reports The Sunday Morning Herald.
Athletes were planning to move into the new digs on Sunday night, but the International Olympic Committee has been forced to look into the plumbing and fire safety.
AOC chef de mission Kitty Chiller told the Herald that problems found also included darkened stairwells and dirty floors.
She said: ‘In operations areas water has come through the ceiling resulting in large puddles on the floor around cabling and wiring.’
The committee conducted a ‘stress test’ on Saturday by turning on all the bathroom sinks, across several floors, to see if the system could cope.
‘The system failed. Water came down walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was shorting in the electrical wiring,’ she added.
Rio’s organising committee has swiftly sent in more than 1,000 cleaners and repair staff to resolve the issues.
But Rio’s mayor, Eduardo Paes, was insulted to hear the news, and hit back calling the village ‘nicer than the one in Sydney’.
