The head of sailing's governing body threatened Saturday to move all Olympic sailing events out of polluted Guanabara Bay unless the water is cleaner and floating rubbish is removed for next year's Rio Games.
"If we can't get the water to a level, then we'll move it outside (to the Atlantic Ocean) - for sure," Peter Sowrey told The Associated Press on the final day of an Olympic test event.
Such a move would be an embarrassment to local organisers and the International Olympic Committee. They have said repeatedly the water is safe despite being filled with floating rubbish and untreated sewage that gushes down gullies from hillside favelas.
Sowrey, the chief executive officer of ISAF, said one course for the test event inside the bay was closed after floating rubbish hindered racing for two days. Rubbish flowed into the bay despite little rain in Rio in recent weeks, probably the best weather officials could want.
He also complained he received no data during the week-long Olympic test from the state body that monitors water quality.
"We are not happy as a federation from the reporting on the water," Sowrey said. "We're not getting the reporting we expected to get."
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