FINA, Rio 2016 Report Positive Feedback in Crowded Venue

(ATR) Athletes are happy with the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center in Rio and that is satisfying organizers and the International Aquatics Federation.

"If divers are happy, we are happy because they are the number one priority," Cornel Marculescu, FINA Executive Director, said to Around the Rings.

"In this venue for the first time we will have three sports. After the people were here and they see what they venue is they have adapted to that and I don’t think this will be a problem. We hope to have the best Olympic event ever."

For the 2016 Games Maria Lenk will host diving, synchronized swimming, and water polo. It is the first time an Olympic venue is hosting three disciplines, and presents a list of "operational concerns" for Rio 2016 venue management director Gustavo Nascimento.

Getting to this point required compromise from FINA, the Rio city government, and Rio 2016 organizers. After Mayor Paes officially presented the venue and divers began competition at the FINA diving World Cup on Feb. 19-24, all parties say they are satisfied.

Marculescu says the solution of having three events in one venue will "never, ever be done in the future." He added that FINA has already begun discussions with Tokyo 2020 to prevent this kind of situation from recurring.

"Water polo is going to have its own venue, and the aquatics center is going to be a new construction which will be a great legacy for that sport in Japan," Marculescu added.

During the test event, divers have faced delays from thunderstorms and power outagesbut the organizing committee worked overnight to identify all problems so they will not happen during the Games. The organization of the diving world cup has provided plenty of information for the committee moving forward.

"The goal here is to make sure the competition is properly sound and we know what to do; we have a scope aligned, we have the schedules as well, and now it is time to get the venue ready," Nascimento said to ATR.

"There are final adjustments on the main infrastructure for the venue itself, but we are confident that everything is going to be good in the next couple of months."

Both FINA and Rio 2016 say that the schedule for the Games is finally complete and all parties are satisfied. The requisite number of weather days has been added in case of severe weather in consultation with broadcasters and the federation.

"We have in the organizing committee a policy regarding postponement, rescheduling, cancellation policy, and the reasons why we should proceed," Nascimento added. "We have our sport team engaged with the FINA representatives to align this and we are making sure everyone is involved in the contingency plan. It is a different time of the year, but it could rain and we could have thunderstorms during Games time, so we are using these lessons from here to adapt."

During the test event Nascimento said that over 20 organizational areas were identified and tested, including security. Diving represented the first time that national security forces were used at an Olympic-related event. During the Olympics over 80,000 security personnel will be used to protect the event.

"We have pretty much twice as many people from the organizing committee staff working directly here. It is a good lesson," Nascimento said.

"We have this event and gymnastics as a major event, and of course we have 20 more events to run focused on the field of play and results. For these two events we are getting more consistent lessons, and making sure everything is going to be ready for the Games."

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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