Martin Rogers

USA TODAY Sports

RIO DE JANEIRO – Olympic diving chiefs claimed on Wednesday to have solved an embarrassing saga at the Games’ diving arena that turned the competition pool a deep shade of green and left competitors joking that they were leaping into “a swamp.”

While Rio’s organizing committee and FINA, the world governing body for swimming and diving, insisted the water posed no danger to athletes, the divers and independent water experts have been very skeptical.

FINA said the reason for the discoloration, which was so severe that pairs divers could not see the partner next to them when they submerged, was because the pool’s water tanks “ran out some of the chemicals” necessary for the water treatment process. A water polo pool adjacent to the diving well also is green.

“As a result the pH level of the water was outside the usual range, causing the discoloration,” FINA said. “The FINA Sport Medicine Committee conducted tests on the water quality and concluded that there was no risk to the health and safety of the athletes, and no reason for the competition to be affected.”

Rio spokesman Mario Andrada insisted the “water will be blue from now on” after water experts spent Wednesday morning carrying out a series of tests.

“It (was) so green,” British diver Tonia Couch, who finished fifth with Lois Toulson in the women’s 10-meter platform, said. “As the sun went down it looked worse.”

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Couch did say that the water had one unexpected benefit – it made it easier for divers to isolate the surface as they spun through the air.

Canadian team leader Mitch Geller, who divers Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito clinched bronze in the 10-meter, told reporters on Tuesday that his squad “hope it is not like a swamp tomorrow.”

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The chemicals mentioned by officials are likely a reference to disinfectant, according to Ralph Riley, an expert from the London-based Pool Water Treatment Advisory Group.

“If it has gone green and that is because there is not enough disinfectant there would be some kind of implied risk,” Riley told USA TODAY Sports by telephone before the FINA announcement. Riley said his group strongly advised against swimming in green water.

The water continued to be a hot topic of discussion between divers in the lead-up to Wednesday’s men’s 3-meter synchronized springboard event.

“We noticed it,” Mexico’s Paola Espinosa said. “But it didn’t smell and there was nothing left on our skin.”

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