Rio Olympics diving pool turns green overnight

Officials in Rio planned for just about everything that could possibly happen during the Olympics, but they couldn’t stop nature from turning the diving pool green.

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Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. No, it’s not St. Patrick’s Day. The water in the diving pool at the Rio Olympics has turned green overnight, shocking fans who showed up after last night’s diving events to find such a drastic change. The Olympics diving pool is completely green, while the pool beside it, used this morning for water polo, was crystal clear and vivid blue.

The Olympics diving pool isn’t chlorinated and is kept at a much warmer temperature than the other pool, and given the open venue exposing the pools to the elements, it’s most likely that the green color is due to an algae outbreak that has clouded the water. What’s unusual is that the algae literally sprouted overnight, and at some point prior to the water polo tournament this morning.

While the algae itself isn’t harmful to the athletes, it does create a problem of optics. It’s challenging to see the divers as they enter the water, for one. It’s also gross, plain and simple. It looks awful, and that might be the worst part of it. For all of the careful preparation done ahead of the games, and given all of the concerns about the facilities, Rio officials didn’t need something like this to happen, something that could have been prevented.

It’s expected that there will be an official announcement made at some point offering an explanation. Until then, the diving pool’s water resembles the Rio 2016 décor.