Bach Defends Rio Legacy Amid Protests -- On the Scene

(ATR) After a noisy scene by environmental protesters at the IOC hotel in Copacabana, IOC president Thomas Bach defends the environmental legacies of the 2016 Games.

A band of about a dozen protesters turned up on the final day of the IOC Executive Board meeting in Rio. After waving banners outside the oceanfront hotel, two or three of the group managed to barge their way past guards into the lobby.

One female protester commended all the attention, loudly condemning in Portugese the newly-built Olympic golf course. Dozens of reporters waiting for the closing press conference of the IOC president surrounded her, photographing and recording the small-scale mayhem.

At one point she pulled at an Olympic flag and tried to grab it. A hotel staff member snatched it away before anything else could happen.

The protesters carried signs with harsh intonations for the IOC: "Environmental Holocaust," "IOC Go Home," and "Thomas Bach is a Nature Killer."

IOC Director of Communications Mark Adams eventually spoke to the woman protester in the lobby with the aid of a translator. He invited the protesters to submit their concerns to the IOC and he insisted that Bach would read them.

About an hour later during the press conference, Bach confirmed he would listen to the voices of those in Rio de Janeiro who have concerns about the environment and the Olympics. At the same time Bach said he believes the 2016 Olympics will bring positive effects to the Rio de Janeiro environment.

"[The IOC] want to leave knowing there is a great legacy for the Cariocas and for the people of Brazil and we made a big part of our discussion with the OCOG and the public authority to ensure this," Bach told reporters.

"The golf course as you can see has cultivated a kind of wasteland before, and I was told the natural resources which have been claimed for [the project] have been giving back to nature," Bach said.

"With regard to the bay, we would not [be speaking] of the cleaning if there would not be the Olympic Games and no sailing events in this space."

For the golf course, Bach gave his assurances that the water being used to water the sod is recycled grey water.

"The course does not affect the drinking water resources of Rio because this is a revolving system so the water for the irrigation is not taken from the drinking water reserves," Bach said.

Confusion remains over the goal of treatment of 80 percent of raw sewage flowing into Guanabara Bay will be met. In January, Rio de Janeiro state organizers said they will fall short of the 80 percent target, but the Rio 2016 Coordination Commission said that organizers reiterated to them that 80 percent remains the goal they are pursing.

"I can only report to you what the state authorities have reported to our coordination commission and to the Executive Board," Bach said.

"There the very clear message was they are maintaining this target of 80 percent [treatment]."

Bach said he was part of the evaluation commission for a Rio de Janeiro bid for the 2004 Olympics and organizers promised the same treatment for the bay back in the mid-90s.

"I received many commitments and promises that the Bay would be clean regardless of the Games or not and this would be a great city project," Bach said.

"Rio did not get the games and nothing happened, the bay got worse."

Bach added that the new metro line from Ipanema to Barra de Tijuca serves as one of the biggest non-sport legacies the Olympics will bring to Rio.

The IOC president cited that 1 million more people in Rio de Janeiro would have access to public transportation in the form of new bus lines and the new metro, meaning 63 percent of residences will now have public transportation access post Rio 2016.

Bach’s press conference--more than an hour long, his longest so far as IOC president--began more than an hour behind schedule. Some of the 150 journalists herded into the press conference room impatient over the delay began clapping their hands in unison, which Bach said he and his EB colleagues could hear in the adjoining room as they tried to finish their meeting.

Late Saturday afternoon Bach left the Windsor Atlantica Hotel where he met with young fencers at a favela. His visit was one of several made this week two groups of young athletes by IOC members with sports expertise.

Anita DeFrantz met with young rowers, while Sergey Bubka and Nawal El Moutawakel conducted a camp for track and field athletes earlier in the week.

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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