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  • Current Event
    8 years ago
    by Vandertoolen
    +19 +1

    Tests find Olympic water in Rio de Janeiro heavily polluted with raw sewage

    New tests carried out by the Associated Press have found that the waters around Rio de Janeiro are heavily and dangerously contaminated, even 1Km out to sea. The new tests bring further doubt on Rio's ability to safely hold the Olympics in 2016. The tests are the second series carried out by AP, who found in July that the waters had disease-causing virus levels 1.7 million times higher than what would cause extreme alarm in the US or Europe.

  • Current Event
    8 years ago
    by geoleo
    +44 +1

    Russia likely to miss 2016 Rio Olympics over doping, European official says

    Russia, an Olympics powerhouse, is likely to miss the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, the head of Europe's top sports body said Tuesday. Russia was banned indefinitely by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) recently after a commission by the World Anti-Doping Agency uncovered widespread doping among its athletes. The report also claimed the Russian government was complicit in a well-organized program to give its competitors...

  • Current Event
    8 years ago
    by aj0690
    +30 +1

    Zika-linked condition: Rio Olympics 'to go ahead' despite virus

    There is no chance that the Rio Olympics will be cancelled because of a Zika virus outbreak, Brazil has said. The authorities said there was no risk to athletes and spectators - except pregnant women - at the August event. Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned a disease linked to Zika posed a global public health emergency requiring a united response.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by ppp
    +26 +1

    At least 2 dead as Rio Olympic project collapses

    At least two people were killed Thursday in the collapse of a new elevated bike path that has been heralded as a top legacy project of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The accident on the Tim Maia bike path is the latest in a series of problems besetting preparations for the Aug. 5-21 games, which include worries about an outbreak of the Zika virus, political turmoil that threatens to topple President Dilma Rousseff, underwhelming ticket sales and budget cuts amid...

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by ppp
    +22 +1

    Rio 2016 Olympics: 100 days to go

    If Olympic opening ceremonies should capture the atmosphere in a host nation, then Rio 2016's curtain-raiser should be interesting. With 100 days until the Games begin, Brazil is unraveling fast -- largely overshadowing the impending arrival of sport's greatest showpiece. Who needs the staple pre-Olympic media diet of venue delays and security fears when you have a leader facing impeachment, a gigantic corruption scandal and a global public health emergency?

  • Analysis
    7 years ago
    by dianep
    +12 +1

    Road To Rio: Can The Olympics Save Golf?

    Daniel Stapff was once a chubby, 11-year-old tennis player from Curitiba, Brazil, the son of a former pro whose entire family lived racket-in-hand. But one day Stapff found himself bored and near a golf course. He whacked a few balls.Stapff left the course underwhelmed. Striking the tiny dimpled ball with an awkwardly shaped club was a towering task. The game was tedious to learn — and besides, Stapff's dream was to turn pro in his father’s sport.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by timex
    +25 +1

    Zika Fears Prompt 150 Public Health Experts to Call for Olympics to Be Moved From Rio

    A group of 150 prominent scientists, doctors and medical ethicists have signed a letter calling for this summer's Olympic Games to be postponed or moved from Rio de Janeiro due to the ongoing Zika virus outbreak in Brazil. In a letter directed to World Health Organization Director Dr. Margaret Chan, the group said that new findings about the Zika virus should result in the games being moved or postponed to safeguard the thousands of athletes, staff and reporters scheduled to attend the games.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by socialiguana
    +34 +1

    NBA star Pau Gasol considers skipping Olympics due to Zika virus concerns

    One of Spain’s most famous athletes, the basketball player Pau Gasol, has said he is considering skipping this summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro due to fears over the Zika virus. Gasol said he has spoken to other athletes who were considering whether to compete at the Games. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see some athletes deciding not to participate in the games to avoid putting their health and the health of their families at risk,” Gasol, who plays for the Chicago Bulls, said.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by TNY
    +7 +1

    Olympic athletes will sport Visa's new payment ring in Rio

    For those making their way to this year's Olympic games in Rio this August, Visa will be the only card accepted at official venues -- a pretty sweet deal for the payment provider. But, rather than be satisfied with exclusive access to the wallets of a half million tourists, the company is using the event to introduce a new ring that will let people pay with a wave of their hand: No phone, wallet or even battery needed.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by hedman
    +22 +1

    Journalists Are Backing Out of the Olympics Over Zika

    Athletes have already expressed concern about traveling to the heart of the Zika outbreak to compete in this summer’s Olympics. Now journalists are opting out entirely. Several NBC employees will not travel to Brazil to cover the games, including Today anchor Savannah Guthrie, who announced today that she’s pregnant. The CDC made a recommendation in February that women who are pregnant should not travel to Zika-affected countries, then later expanded the recommendation to include women who are considering getting pregnant.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by jcscher
    +35 +1

    Financial Calamity Declared in Rio Weeks before Olympics, but Games will go on

    The state says it fears a “total collapse” in public security, health, transport and more.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by ckshenn
    +45 +1

    Oil turns white boats to brown in Rio Olympic sailing venue

    A new pollution problem has surfaced in Guanabara Bay, the venue for sailing in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Sailors complained Monday about an oil slick that turned white boats brown with crews in town practicing for the Olympics, which open in a month. "We've never seen anything like this. It was all over the place," said Finnish sailor Camilla Cedercreutz. "There was no way you could avoid it." It's yet another in a long list of problems confronting South America's first games: the Zika virus, rising crime and violence, budget cuts, and slow ticket sales.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by aj0690
    +29 +1

    'Super bacteria' is in Rio Olympic waters, it's almost untreatable, and it can be deadly

    “Super bacteria” has been found in Guanabara Bay, the site of 2016 Olympic sailing competition. With less than a month until the 2016 Olympics get underway in Rio de Janeiro, almost all mentions of the games are accompanied by tangible concerns. An upsurge in violence has swept through the Rio streets, and security seems unequipped to deal with it.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by lostwonder
    +2 +1

    Officials push to bar Russian Olympic delegation if doping allegations true

    Antidoping officials are preparing to request a complete ban of the Russian delegation from the Summer Olympics if allegations of a state-run doping scandal at the 2014 Winter Games are verified.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by TNY
    +42 +1

    All Russian Teams Face Ban From Rio Olympics

    The World Anti-Doping Agency has recommended that Russia's entire team is banned from this summer's Olympic Games. Its call follows a damning report which found Russia has systematically covered up doping in "all sporting disciplines" since 2011. The sports ministry and secret service "directed and oversaw" the manipulation of urine samples, resulting in at least 312 falsified results up until at least last year's world swimming championships, WADA claimed.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by ppp
    +40 +1

    Zika Isn’t The Biggest Mosquito-Transmitted Disease Plaguing Brazil

    Ask anyone in the United States what the biggest health risk is at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and they’ll tell you it’s Zika. The mosquito-borne virus has hit Brazil the hardest, leaving more than 1,500 newborns with serious brain defects in its wake. Zika’s spread ignited a fiery funding battle in Congress, pushed cities to blindly craft local public health responses, and even convinced some Olympic athletes to skip this summer’s event.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by ubthejudge
    +15 +1

    Brazilian police arrest Isis-linked group over alleged Olympics attack plot

    Fifteen days before the Olympics opening ceremony, Brazilian police have arrested 10 alleged Islamic State sympathisers who are suspected of planning an act of terrorism during the games. Two others are still at large. The Brazilian justice minister, Alexandre Moraes, described the suspects – all of whom are Brazilian – as “absolutely amateur and unprepared”, but he said they had sworn allegiance to Islamic State, celebrated the recent attacks in Orlando and Nice, and some of them had tried to buy AK-47s.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by zyery
    +34 +1

    The solution to doping is to extend the blame beyond athletes

    Doping in sport is widespread and shows little sign of abating. Athletes are dropping out of the Rio Olympics like flies. Maria Sharapova was banned for two years after testing positive for meldonium; a Romanian kayaking team failed their drug test, disqualifying them pending further investigations; and the International Olympic Committee announced that they could ban up to 31 athletes from competing because retests of their samples collected during the 2008 Beijing Olympics indicated the presence of banned substances.

  • Current Event
    7 years ago
    by jasont
    +16 +1

    Australians not moving into Olympic Village due to 'blocked toilets, exposed wiring'

    The Australian team will not be moving into Olympic Village for the time being because of problems including "blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed wiring", delegation head Kitty Chiller has said, less than two weeks ahead of the Rio Games. Chiller, who said she would reassess the situation later, said she had raised concerns on a daily basis with the organisers and the International Olympic Committee, and was "pushing hard for a solution".

  • Expression
    7 years ago
    by zyery
    +25 +1

    The Media Village at the Rio Olympics Is Built on a Mass Grave of Slaves

    When journalists show up en masse in Rio de Janeiro to cover the Summer Olympics next month, many will stay in the Barra Media Villages, a self-described group of “over 1,500 spacious and modern apartments” complete with kitchens, 24/7 food access, along with a huge pool. But, write Daniel Gross and Jonathan Watts for The Guardian, that luxury comes at a price: Part of the village was constructed on top of a mass grave for slaves. Gross and Watts report that part of a Brazilian quilombo, a community of people whose ancestors were runaway slaves, was torn down to make the village.