Sailing Fed Using Rio Test Event to Implement Sanitation Practices

(ATR) Nebojsa Nikolic, a member of the International Sailing Federation medical commission, tells Around the Rings his arrival is helping the federation prepare to handle the environment at the Olympic Games.

ISAF is holding their second test event in Rio on Aug. 15-22, and currently only four sailors of 300 have fallen ill Nikolic said.

Due to concerns over the water quality, ISAF requested Nikolic observe the test event, an action not normally done by the federation.

"This test event actually gave us very big value in terms of public health in promoting good health," Nikolic said to ATR.

"I’m here to evaluate what is really going on. We have 300 sailors here, but we are trying to see what the influence of the environment is on the sportsmen here. I’m exteremely happy to be here because we were able to do several simple things that everyone is taking for granted."

Nikolic attributes the current lack of illnesses to greater communication with team doctors over best practices; he says that two of the four illnesses are from teams that did not attend the meetings. Also, ISAF has placed sanitizing stations throughout the competition venue and has encouraged sailors and coaches to use them regularly.

In addition to sanitizing stations, showers were installed in launching areas before the Olympic Games, so that sailors can clear themselves off immediately after exiting the Marina da Gloria.

"We of course did our prevention work here. That’s why we are here," Nikolic said.

"I must stress the excellent cooperation with the Brazilian team we had here. I would say there was nothing that we requested they said no. Whatever we asked them for, they said yes."

According to Nikolic, ISAF will conduct two studies during the test event, the first will be to continue monitoring the illnesses that have come during major ISAF championships as part of a multi-year study, and the second is to study the athletes who got sick in Rio based on their age and the class they race in.

"It is also possible that sailors that are sailing in different water, have actually more resistance and we want to identify that with this study," Nikolic said.

"We of course added some questions that will be interesting for the sailing sport, which class they are competing, and we will see the length of their professional sports career because this is difficult to say if this is a safe area or not."

Nikolic says the studies will help the federation make a "qualified decision" about additional best practices for the venue, and that currently the water meets international standards set out by the World Health Organization and the IOC.

He says that the high level of viruses in the water reported by the Associated Press report were important for the scientific community to read about, but the federation has not tested for viruses due to a lack of global standards.

"We are happy they are testing about viruses, as we also want to know more," Nikolic said.

"The problem with the viruses is that we simply don’t have globally agreed standards for testing. It is an ongoing debate between the public health people and virologists and very few states are testing for the viruses in the water.

"So to expect from ISAF to do independently something like that, for us it is unacceptable and irresponsible. We cannot afford to be like that. Independent testing they can do that, so I think it is very good the AP published the method from their virologist."

Nikolic says that work is being done to continually improve the water quality in Rio, with the raw sewage flowing into the Marina set to be diverted in November, and with a technique called bioremediation. He says that the state government is currently introducing bacteria into the bay to combat the harmful bacteria that could harm athletes.

"I am looking forward to seeing the results," Nikolic says.

"It looks like it is working."

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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