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Diving pool mysteriously turns green

By Editor
11 August 2016   |   1:48 am
So this is strange. Divers at the Rio Olympics arrived at the pool Tuesday to find the water green … and not a cheery green, either, but a stomach-churning, I’m-gonna-come-out-of-there-heaving-aren’t-I? green.
A picture taken on August 10, 2016 at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro shows the Water Polo (L) pool and the diving pool of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Red-faced Rio Olympics organisers anxiously waited for the diving water to turn back from a nervy green to classic blue as a lack of chemicals was revealed as the cause of the colour changes. Heavy rain slowed the flow of new chemicals added to the water which was also green in the pool used for the synchronised swimming and water-polo. CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP

A picture taken on August 10, 2016 at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro shows the Water Polo (L) pool and the diving pool of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Red-faced Rio Olympics organisers anxiously waited for the diving water to turn back from a nervy green to classic blue as a lack of chemicals was revealed as the cause of the colour changes. Heavy rain slowed the flow of new chemicals added to the water which was also green in the pool used for the synchronised swimming and water-polo.<br />CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP

So this is strange. Divers at the Rio Olympics arrived at the pool Tuesday to find the water green … and not a cheery green, either, but a stomach-churning, I’m-gonna-come-out-of-there-heaving-aren’t-I? green.

Amateur pool quality detectives have theorized that the chlorine balance in the pool is out of whack, allowing algae to form in the water.

The solution is “shocking” the pool with a cocktail of specific chemicals, something that’s a matter of routine when talking about your neighborhood pool but a bit more complex with the most viewed aquatic center on the entire planet.

Athletes have continued diving into the green water anyway, even though we’re clearly talking about far nastier, or at least cloudier, water:

Worth noting, as Sports Illustrated points out: water in the diving pool is generally five to ten degrees warmer than the swimming pool, and is also outside. Warmer, outdoor water can promote algae growth.

Just a theory here, but the type of chlorine treatment that works in one pool doesn’t necessarily apply to the other.

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