Diving pool continues to be embarrassment to Rio Games organizers

Diver Abby Johnston rejected the possibility of bringing back the most fascinating research specimen from Rio when she returns to medical school at Duke University.

Water from the diving pool.

“I might be too grossed out to really find out what’s in there since I’m in it,” the American diver said Friday after the women’s three-meter springboard preliminaries at the Olympics.

“One time in a weight room, I did a sample and I found all these different bacteria that were really gross.”

Green water sounded equally challenging.

The blue water in the diving pool turned green earlier this week, spawning a cottage industry on Twitter of Photoshopped pictures. The green spread to the adjacent water polo pool.

Rio officials took the unusual step of shutting down Friday’s morning training session and attempted to clean the murky diving pool, which has the most visible facility failures of the Games.

One mistake led to another earlier in trying to correct the problem. First, too much chlorine was added and the players’ eyes started stinging. Officials from Rio and FINA, the international governing body of aquatics, insisted there was no health risk to the athletes.

Johnston left for the venue at 5:45 a.m. and wasn’t pleased to learn about the pool closure.

“Show up for my warmup and without prior notice they say the pool is closed —#FixTheSwamp should start trending,” she tweeted.

British diver Tom Daley also jumped in, tweeting: “Diving pool is closed this morning. Hopefully that means we haven’t been diving in anything too bad the last couple of days!”

Adjustments are continuing and a spokesman for Rio 2016 said they quickly reduced the chlorine used in the two pools — diving and water polo pools — once complaints about stinging eyes surfaced.

“We’ve learned that chemistry is not an exact science,” Mario Andrada of Rio 2016 told reporters.

Other questions went unanswered but a Rio 2016 spokesperson said they planned a news conference Saturday to discuss the “technical details” and “test results.”

Canadian diver Vincent Riendeau said he thought the problems started when the temperature changed earlier in the week.

“I think because it was a bit cold outside, they raised the temperature of the pool,” he said. “There was some algae that grew and they raised the level of chlorine in the water to kill that algae.

“It [the green water] is the biggest subject of conversation right now.”

He said that they were warned to take precautions once practice took place Friday afternoon.

“There’s a bit more chlorine,” Riendeau said. “They told us not to open our eyes too much in the water. It’s just a question of health and not getting our eyes too itchy. I haven’t felt anything. I dove for two hours and I really didn’t feel my eyes starting to itch. I think it’s going to be all right for all the athletes.”

Johnston and Kassidy Cook both qualified for Saturday’s semifinals, in sixth and eighth. Neither reported any ill effects from the water.

“It’s just really murky,” Johnston said. “It’s an odd color. I never really dove into anything like that — except an ocean.”

Divers were briefed extensively, as were all athletes before heading to Rio.

“I think we were really well prepared to expect anything … weather,” Johnston said. “I don’t think we talked about the pool changing colors.”

Follow Lisa Dillman on Twitter @reallisa