Pokemon-free Rio Olympic Village 'the worst thing'

Rio Olympians hoping to 'catch em' all' in their downtime at the Rio 2016 Games will have to do so outside of the athletes' village.

Noticing the sparse population of Pokemon in the Rio Olympic Village, French slalom canoeist Matthieu Peche was quick to take to Twitter to reveal the latest 'discovery' in the virtual smartphone game taking the world by storm.

"No Pokemon in the Olympic Village," Peche wrote in a post to his followers.

US Olympic diver Abby Johnston also commented on the absence of Pokemon in the village.

"Want to know the worst thing about the Olympic village? No @PokemonGoApp. Otherwise, it's incredible," she wrote.

Like Peche and Johnston, many international athletes have been caught up in the Pokemon Go craze, including Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios who grabbed headlines recently when he revealed he puts more energy into the virtual game than his professional tennis career.

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Meanwhile, the official opening of the Olympic Village in Rio turned to fiasco with the discovery of blocked toilets and leaky pipes, prompting the Australian team to call the facility "not safe or ready."

"Problems include blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed and dirty floors in need of a massive clean," the head of the Australian team, Kitty Chiller, said in a statement.

During a test involving taps and toilets being turned on in apartments on several floors, "water came down walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was 'shorting' in the electrical wiring."

Chiller later told reporters: "This is my fifth Olympics Games, I have never experienced a Village in this lack of state of readiness at this point in time."

Even Brazilian athletes who were meant to have started taking up lodgings in the brand-new complex from Sunday were being kept in hotels instead.

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Britain's delegation said it, too, had encountered some "maintenance difficulties," but added it was staying in the Village as planned.

The New Zealand team has begun moving in, with rower Mahe Drysdale the first to officially arrive.

"Already taken ownership of the Village being the very first Athlete from any country to arrive and get through the gates!" Drysdale wrote on social media.

"All is good, few finishing touches still to be made but when you arrive at 5am on opening day you can't expect it to be perfect. Next stop the Rowing Venue.

"Exciting to think racing gets way in under 2 weeks."

New Zealand Olympic Committee chef de mission Rob Waddell said the village was not completely ready when he arrived last week but the issues had been resolved and Kiwi athletes were beginning to move into their allotted accommodation.

"We were disappointed the village wasn't as ready as it might have been when we arrived and it hasn't been easy. Our team has had to get stuck in to get the job done," he said in a statement.

Rio's Olympic organizers said such teething problems plagued all Olympic Games. They promised that "adjustments" were being made to resolve the problems.

The Olympic Games – the first to be held in South America – are to open on August 5, less than two weeks away.

The lack of preparedness in the Olympic Village was another embarrassing blow for host Brazil, which is struggling to show all will be well with the Olympiad.

It is already facing low ticket sales, general public apathy amid a deep recession, fears over the Zika virus, and a spike in street crime as police complain of lack of resources.

– With AFP

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