Crying Games: athletes complain about chemicals burning their eyes as Rio’s green water spreads

Water polo players complained chlorine was stinging their eyes after a second Olympic pool turned green and officials pumped in chemicals to fix the problem.

Tony Azvedo said he could hardly open his eyes for the last quarter of America’s match with France as organisers rushed to turn the water back to blue.

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After the diving pool suddenly turned from blue to green because the cleaning system ran out of chemicals, the water polo pool followed suit.

“What’s ridiculous is not the green water. I’ve played in plenty of pools with green water. The problem is they put way too much chlorine in. I could barely open my eyes for the final quarter,” Azvedo said on Wednesday.

“Who cares about the green water? The water could be any colour, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that it’s safe for us. This is the Olympic Games and they are putting so much chlorine in the water that people can’t see. You can’t have that.”