RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro has missed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to clean polluted Guanabara Bay, the site for Olympic sailing, Brazil’s most decorated Olympic athlete said in a recent interview.
“We always hoped that having a big event like the Games would help,” the athlete, Torben Grael, told Canada’s CBC television. “We ourselves put a lot of pressure to make it happen, but unfortunately it didn’t happen when they had money. And now they don’t have money, and so it’s even worse.”
Grael has won five Olympic medals in sailing: two gold, a silver and two bronze.