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22 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 27 JULY 2016 Sport OLYMPICS Australia hails quick fix of problems in athletes' village AUSTRALIA'S Olympic dele- gation in Rio de Janeiro said on Monday that organizers had made "fantastic" progress in fixing problems with unfinished hous- ing, although officials admitted that only two-thirds of the build- ings had passed full safety checks. Organizers for South America's first Olympic Games built 31 17-story buildings, but only 12 had been given the green light by Monday morning while another eight were in the process of re- ceiving a full safety certification, Rio2016 spokesman Mario An- drada told Reuters. "Twenty will be ready by today and 31 should be ready by Thurs- day," Andrada said, a full eight days before the opening ceremony. The admission came a day af- ter Australia's delegation said it would not move into the Olympic Village because it was "not safe or ready," citing deficiencies like "blocked toilets, leaking pipes and exposed wiring." [nL4N1AA0G3] The litany of grievances from Australia, which moved members of its delegation into nearby ho- tels, revived concern over Brazil's readiness to host a major sporting event in the midst of its worst re- cession in decades and a deep po- litical crisis. New Zealand and Italy's del- egations both said they had been forced to fix problems with elec- tricity and plumbing, while Ar- gentina said on Monday it had reserved accommodation outside the village for part of its delega- tion. The Dutch team said their own staff had resolved many of the is- sues that beset their building, but they threatened to seek financial compensation for their work. "We will evaluate this situation with IOC and Rio 2016 after the Games," Chief of Mission Mau- rits Hendriks, said in a statement issued on Sunday night. "This applies, for example, to financial consequences as a result of the measures we are taking and have been taken." However, the head of the Aus- tralian Olympic team, Kitty Chill- er, thanked organizers on Monday for responding promptly to her concerns by deploying hundreds of maintenance people and clean- ers. "There was fantastic progress made today," Chiller told a news conference in the Olympic media center. "It's looking like, accord- ing to our plan, we will be able to move everybody in on Wednes- day." The newly built village will host more than 18,000 athletes, offi- cials, staff and volunteers over the Aug. 5-21 Olympics and the Sept. 7-18 Paralympics. Chiller said her team had identi- fied some 200 problems with the accommodation at the weekend - including water running down the walls, dirty floors and a strong smell of gas - but the list was now down to single figures. Australia, which finished eighth in the medals table in London four years ago, is to bring 410 athletes for the games. It received three of its floors in the athletes accom- modation on Monday, and it ex- pects to receive the rest of the 15 floors by Wednesday, Chiller said. Australian Shelley Watts, com- peting in the 60-kg female box- ing category, said she had been impressed by the official accom- modation when she arrived on Monday. "It looks absolutely amazing. I haven't had to concern myself with any of the leakages of the water or anything, but walking in there I just couldn't wipe the smile off my face," she said. "What Rio has done to be able to create this facility is amazing." As many as 500,000 visitors are expected to travel to Brazil for the Games, many of them from the United States. Worries about se- curity, the Zika virus and Brazil's economic crisis could discourage some travelers and VIP guests. Around 28 percent of Olympic tickets have yet to be sold. The problems at the village are not unlike those that have oc- curred before other big spectacles in Brazil, such as the 2014 World Cup, when stadium crews were still wielding paint brushes and screwdrivers even minutes before kickoff. The new subway line, which will connect the popular seaside neighborhoods of Copacabana and Ipanema to the Olympic fa- cilities in Barra de Tijuca, has suf- fered repeated delays and is still undergoing tests despite a sched- uled inauguration next Saturday. Chiller said that a group of around 10 national Olympic com- mittees - including Britain, New Zealand, Japan and Germany - had worked together to alert the local organizers and the Interna- tional Olympic Committee (IOC) to problems at the village. Rio's outspoken Mayor Eduardo Paes pledged to fix the problems, but had appeared to make light of the Australians' complaints by saying he would place a kangaroo in front of their accommodation to make them feel at home. "The mayor and I have a date on Wednesday and I believe there will be a ceremonial handing over of the keys. I have arranged a lit- tle present for the mayor as well," Chiller said. "I still say that it will be the best village that I have ever been in once these issues are com- plete." Chiller said the Australian team had paid the cost of putting its members in hotels and some ini- tial cleaning costs to make its ac- commodation habitable. "We'll work out who pays the bill later on," she added. Kitty Chiller (R), Chef de Mission for Australia at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, leads a news conference with boxer Dan- iel Lewis in which she described the problems that her country's delegation encountered with the athletes' housing in Rio de Janeiro IOC has 'no interest in clean sport' - whistleblower A Russian whistleblower who helped uncover the biggest doping scandal in decades has told Reu- ters that the International Olym- pic Committee (IOC) is more concerned about protecting the organisation than ridding world sport of drugs cheats. A day after the IOC rejected a re- quest by his wife, former Russian drugs cheat Yulia Stepanova, to run in the Rio Games as an inde- pendent athlete, Vitaly Stepanov said an invite to attend the Rio Games as spectators felt like they were being bought. The IOC decided on Sunday not to impose a blanket ban on Rus- sian athletes due to the country's doping history, allowing sports federations to decide on individual cases. However, it said athletes who have been sanctioned in the past for doping would not be eligible for Rio. "My personal view, from the communications we had with people from the IOC, those peo- ple had no interest in clean sport," Stepanov said in a telephone inter- view. "I got the impression the only thing they cared about, even the person from the ethics depart- ment, is protecting the IOC as an organisation." Stepanov, who previously worked for Russia's anti-doping agency, and his wife helped expose the doping scandal which threat- ened to exclude Russia from the Olympics. The couple now live in an un- disclosed location in the United States, fearful for their lives. Stepanov said the invitation to travel to Rio to watch the Games left them cold. "I felt like, 'Are you trying to buy us?'" he said. "Is that how IOC treats whistle- blowers? Make them quiet by giv- ing them IOC accreditation and access to VIP lounges." A spokesman for the IOC could not be reached late on Monday for comment. The IOC's decision not to impose a blanket ban on Russian athletes from the Rio Games, a ban which was requested by the World Anti- Doping Agency (WADA), showed "the IOC is not a leader in sport movement," Stepanov said. "It says strong words but it acts weak." The couple have asked the IOC executive board (IOC EB) to re- view its decision. "(We) cannot but be very disap- pointed that the IOC EB has obvi- ously not been given the correct information by the IOC Ethics Commission," they said in a letter to IOC Director General Chris- tophe de Kepper. Stepanov's wife continues to train and was still hoping the IOC might change its mind, he said. "She will never win another medal. It's more about her partici- pating and trying to see how fast she can run by being an honest athlete," he added. The IOC recognized Stepanova's testimony and public statements as having "made a contribution to the protection and promotion of clean athletes, fair play and the integrity and authenticity of sport, the Rules of the Olympic Charter related to the s However, it also said neither she nor any Russian athlete with a doping past would be eligible for the Games. Stepanov said he had never talked to IOC President Thomas Bach about the case. "Just one email exchange," he said. There also had been "just one, one-hour conversation with one person from IOC Ethics Commis- sion," he added. "They write things like zero tol- erance in doping but you don't get that impression when you talk to people from IOC." Doping would never be brought under control "until IOC members start caring about clean athletes and about clean sport and compe- tition," Stepanov said. He cautioned that the IOC's stance on Russia was a green light to others engaged in doping. "If you are doping in a system that is similar to Russia, continue doing so because there is no rea- son to fight it because in the end the IOC will say they will not pun- ish the system, but we will punish the whistleblower," he said. Yulia Stepanova of Russia, not competing