# Rio Olympics - water quality **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 30, 2015, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rio-olympics-water-quality/726586 "2015-07-30T17:01:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rio-olympics-water-quality/726586/21 "2015-07-31T20:30:18Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Surely it is a characteristic of Olympic-level sailors that they don’t fall off their goddamned boats? Not exactly. One of the classes of boats that are sailed are small one man boats. The Olympic-level sailors probably tip those boats over a lot less than I would but it is not that uncommon. Sort of like how Olympic-level skiers fall down sometimes. > **[Olympics sailing: Ben Ainslie ready to battle for gold](https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/18915692)** > > Ben Ainslie can clinch his fourth Olympic gold medal if he beats leader Jonas Hogh-Christensen on Sunday. Also the huge boats sailing in the America’s cup also some times tip over. ---
**Author:** ![kurtisokc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kurtisokc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurtisokc)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rio-olympics-water-quality/726586/22 "2015-08-01T20:40:01Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Speaking of Beijing, it seems that [most of the Olympic venues](http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/07/13/decrepit-four-years-after-hosting-the-beijing-olympics-this-is-what-chinas-40b-investment-looks-like/) are now abandoned & crumbling. Like many large-scale Chinese works, the Beijing Olympics were mainly an expensive vanity project. I don’t know anything about how the Beijing olympic venues have been utilized, but Blaze article takes a few photos and makes them out to show way more that they do. While it indeed appears that the baseball and beach volleyball have indeed deteriorated and the BMX venue appears to have accumulated some litter and trash, none of the other venues appear to be “crumbling” or “abandoned.” The pictures of the canoe/kayak venue could have been taken when it was drained for routine maintenance (which is a pretty standard practice for artificial watercourses.) The other venues were clearly sitting empty when they were photographed, but that in itself means nothing other than that nothing was going on at the exact moment the picture was taken. ---
**Author:** ![kurtisokc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kurtisokc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurtisokc)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2015, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rio-olympics-water-quality/726586/23 "2015-08-01T20:45:32Z")
What I don’t understand is that Rio already hosted these types of events as part of the 2007 Pan American Games, and presumably in the very same bodies of water. Has the water quality in Rio really deteriorated that much since then, and if not why are we only hearing about it now? ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rio-olympics-water-quality/726586/24 "2015-08-02T18:10:34Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Surely it is a characteristic of Olympic-level sailors that they don’t fall off their goddamned boats? Actually, they sail so close to the limit of a boat’s performance that capsizes are not uncommon, even in medal races. See [this 49er race video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tHGeFYmbNI) from the 200 games with a capsize at the 30 second mark. There were several other capsizes (two at once at the 2:15 mark), including a decisive one near the finish. Sometimes the sailors get “tea-bagged” (dipped in the water) such as the Austrians at the 3:30 mark. Sailing is very much a full contact with the water event. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rio-olympics-water-quality/726586.md?page=1)