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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Skies and pools both darkened Wednesday as the sun-splashed Olympics in Rio de Janeiro gave way to gray clouds and murky green waters.
The Rio Games were drenched in rain and continued questions about why the diving well and water polo pools look so much like neglected aquariums.
The third day of the men’s water polo tournament began in green-tinged water, though not nearly as dark as the neighboring diving pool at the aquatics center. It was crystal blue the day before.
Water quality has been a major issue surrounding the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but in the ocean and lagoons, not pools.
A decrease in the alkaline level in the diving well Tuesday afternoon led to the green color, organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada said. He added that the pool for water polo and synchronized swimming is being affected in the same way but “we expect the color to be back to blue very shortly.”
Rio organizers insisted the athletes weren’t at risk in the green pools.
They were on the waters and slippery roadways, though.
Strong winds rattled palm trees along the coast and whipped up waves on the scenic lagoon where rowing was postponed for a full day for the second time this week. With winds too blustery, rowers packed up their oars for the day as cyclists hit slick roads on skinny time-trial bikes unsuited to harsh weather conditions.
Under dark skies, the cyclists faced lashing rain and wind on the time-trial course along Rio’s southern coast. The conditions might have cost Ellen van Dijk of the Netherlands a medal. She slid off the road and got tangled in weeds before finishing fourth.
American Kristin Armstrong won the race. Armstrong had just put together another golden effort in an Olympic time trial, this time slicing through driving wind and rain, when her 5-year-old son approached her at the finish.
“Mama,” Lucas asked, “why are you crying? You won!”
Once again.
The American cyclist made it three consecutive gold medals on Wednesday, the ageless wonder conquering a brutal course at the Rio Games. Her time of 44 minutes, 26.42 seconds topped reigning bronze medalist Olga Zabelinskaya of Russia by the slimmest of margins: 5.55 seconds.
As for the tears, well, “that’s a great question from a 5-year-old,” Armstrong said with her now-familiar grin. “That’s what we do, we cry when we’re happy.
“I’m going to have to explain that one to him a little later.”
The first American male basketball player to appear in four Olympics, Carmelo Anthony passed LeBron James as the most prolific scorer to ever wear a USA jersey. The U.S. men’s basketball team needed every one of his 31 points as they got their first good test in fending off Australia 98-88.
Diana Taurasi had a career game to help the U.S. women’s basketball team top Serbia.Taurasi scored 22 of her Olympic-best 25 points in the first half to help the Americans beat Serbia 110-84 on Wednesday. Taurasi set a new U.S. Olympic Mark, hitting six 3’s in the game.
Tina Charles finished with 15 points. Next up for the U.S. (3-0) is Canada on Friday.
Katie Ledecky’s strong final leg helped the U.S. women win the 4x200 freestyle relay over silver medalist Australia.
Brazil finally found its scoring touch in the men’s soccer tournament at the Olympics, the host country advancing to the quarterfinals by beating Denmark 4-0 and avoiding an embarrassing elimination in front of the home fans. Brazil plays Colombia in Sao Paulo on Saturday.
With a dazzling 15.8 on the high bar, Kohei Uchimura, the superstar gymnast from Japan, won the men’s all-around title on Wednesday night, edging Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine by less than a tenth of the point to capture his second straight Olympic gold.
In boxing, Kansas fighter Nico Hernandez is guaranteed to win at least a bronze and become the first American to medal in the Olympics since 2008.
With the cooler weather, away went the bare skin and out came the full leggings and long-sleeve shirts in beach volleyball as temperatures dipped into the lower 60s after sunset, the coldest night yet.
Other highlights from Day 5 at the Rio Games:
Swimming Shocker: Kazakhstan has its first Olympic swimming medal, and it's golden. Dmitriy Balandin pulled off a stunning upset in the men's 200-meter breaststroke, winning from the eighth lane to put his central Asian country on the swimming medal stand for the first time. Yosuhiro Koseki of Japan went out fast and was more than a second under world-record pace at the final turn but faded to fifth. Josh Prenot of the United States claimed silver and Anton Chupkov of Russia landed the bronze.
On Guard: Third-ranked Aron Szilagyi of Hungary beat upstart American fencer Daryl Homer to win gold in men's sabre. Despite the Wednesay loss, Homer earned the second silver medal for the U.S. men's fencing team in Rio. Homer's final touch gave him a thrilling 15-14 victory over Iran's Mojtaba Abedini in the semifinals and put him within a win of the first gold for the U.S. men in the modern era. But Szilagyi proved to be too much for the 10th-ranked American, who fell 15-8. Junghwan Kim won bronze.
Ebner Eliminated: Nate Ebner, the safety for the New England Patriots who took a break from training camp to fulfill his Olympic dream, sprinted from almost halfway to score a try in the right corner against Fiji to make it 24-19, piling the pressure on Madison Hughes. But the U.S. captain and goal kicker missed the conversion from out wide, leaving the margin at five. Less than that and the Americans would have advanced.
Rowing At Risk: Twenty-two races, including the first two medal races, were postponed in the regatta but international rowing federation director Matt Smith said there's still room on the schedule without having to resort to drastic measures — even if competition is also called off Thursday.
Life's A Beach: The American beach volleyball team of Jake Gibb and Casey Patterson were eliminated from the Olympics on a tiebreaker. That's the first U.S men's team to fail to advance out of pool play since the 2004 Athens Games. On the women's side, April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings defeated Switzerland and boisterously celebrated after the match. But the Americans lost a set — something that has happened only once to Walsh Jennings in the last three Olympics.