Rio’s Olympic Village Might Be a Mess, but Could It Be Worse Than Sochi?
This year's Olympics in Rio are off to a rocky start. And now athletes don't want to move into their assigned rooms.
The Australian Olympic delegation is refusing to move into the athletes’ village just outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, calling the conditions “unfit for occupancy.” Sweden’s women’s soccer team has since followed suit. And American, Italian, and Dutch teams hired professional cleaners to mop up messes left unattended in the rooms where they are supposed to stay for this year’s Summer Games.
The Australian Olympic delegation is refusing to move into the athletes’ village just outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, calling the conditions “unfit for occupancy.” Sweden’s women’s soccer team has since followed suit. And American, Italian, and Dutch teams hired professional cleaners to mop up messes left unattended in the rooms where they are supposed to stay for this year’s Summer Games.
“Problems include blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed, and dirty floors in need of a massive clean,” the Australian chief of mission Kitty Chiller told the Sydney Morning Herald.
But could whatever problems have emerged at the Olympic village in Brazil actually surpass the construction woes surrounding the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, when athletes and journalists arrived to hotels that were rapidly built to accommodate them, only to find bathrooms that in some cases had two toilet, in others had half a toilet, and at times had toilets in the hallway instead? Below, Foreign Policy has dug out some of the best photos that emerged during those games, many of which were shared using #SochiProblems. Looks like Rio Problems is next: Someone already claimed the Twitter handle.
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