Olympic sailing venue in Brazil remains highly polluted

In less than three months, international sailors will arrive in Brazil to test the venue for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

They may not like what they find.

The city’s Guanabara Bay remains significantly polluted, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press.

Government officials had promised to reduce pollution flowing into the bay by 80% but are now scrambling to achieve slightly better than half of that goal.

The International Sailing Federation may conduct its own water-quality tests in coming months.

“Certainly compared to most sailing venues, the water quality is very, very bad,” Alastair Fox, head of competitions for the federation, was quoted as saying in a Monday email.

Preparations for the Games have been plagued by delays and civic unrest. Last week, Rio 2016 organizers released a statement saying they had finished building 38% of the competition venues but construction remains behind schedule at many key sites.