German diver says diving pool smells like farts as officials struggle to change the colour from green to blue

OH dear. Rio officials have made an embarrassing declaration that ‘chemistry is not an exact science’. Now the diving pool has been closed.

Stephen Feck at the pool (Source Facebook)

RIO Olympics organisers have been forced to close the diving pool as they struggle to get the water back to normal with German athlete Stephan Feck saying “the whole building smells like farts”.

Olympic divers were turfed out of the Rio pool and told to train on dry land as officials rushed to turn the water from unsightly green back to blue -- and one competitor complained it smelled like farts.

Organisers admitted the process of cleaning up the pool, which suddenly turned green this week, was a longer and more complicated process than they thought.

The shutdown comes after water polo players, using the adjacent pool which also went green, complained of stinging eyes after technicians bumped up the chlorine levels to turn it back to blue.

A general view shows the pool

The Olympic diving pool has been closed again because of water quality issues...a German diver says "the whole building smells like a fart"

— Tom Steinfort (@tomsteinfort) August 12, 2016

“We learned that chemistry is not an exact science,” said Games spokesman Mario Andrada said.

“It went longer than expected. We understood that this morning a training session was cancelled because we need to have the water still so we can clean it first.”

British diver Tom Daley reacted to the closure by tweeting: “Hopefully that means we haven’t been diving in anything too bad the last couple of days!”

Perhaps the closure was just as well, as Germany’s Stephan Feck reported that the venue smelled like farts.

“The moment you want to do some workout and the pool is closed -- the whole venue smells like somebody has fart,” he wrote on Facebook, with a picture of himself holding his nose at the pool.

Andrada again insisted the water wasn’t dangerous for athletes, but he said that technicians had eased back on the chlorine after the complaints of stinging eyes.

The water has looked a little off colour this week

Diving pool is closed this morning. Hopefully that means we haven't been diving in anything too bad the last couple of days! 😷😷😷

— Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994) August 12, 2016

“We reduced immediately the quantity (of chlorine). We retested the water, it’s totally within the parameters and health specialists... are on top of this issue,” he said.

“We understand that the athletes had access to a dry facility where they can at least do some training. Not ideal, but we believe that fixing the water and making it look the way it should is a priority in this case.”

“Who cares about the green water? The water could be any colour, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s safe for us.

“This is the Olympic Games and they are putting so much chlorine in the water that people can’t see. You can’t have that.”

Hungary’s Gergo Zalanki was another player who complained about the water said: “My eyes hurt from the water, it’s not good. It feels like they added more chlorine to the water but I’m not sure,” he said.

“I’m used to it because we have a lot of water like this in Hungary, but I think there might be something else wrong too.”

@TomDaley1994 As approved by @fina1908, diving training is cancelled b/c the water must be still for the pool to return to its blue color.

— Rio 2016 (@Rio2016_en) August 12, 2016

Originally published as German diver says diving pool smells like farts as officials struggle to change the colour from green to blue