Sailors preparing for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro have complained about an oil slick that is turning their white boats brown.
The pollution problem has taken hold in Guanabara Bay, the venue for sailing in this year’s Games.
Finnish sailor, Camilla Cedercreutz, who will be competing in the four-yearly event, said: “We've never seen anything like this. It was all over the place.
“There was no way you could avoid it.”
The slick reportedly filled part of the bay on Sunday, staining Cedercreutz’s boat from bow to stern.
“This is only our second time in Rio. We've heard it was really bad, You get mad because it shouldn't be like this anywhere,” Cedercreutz added.
"It shouldn't be this dirty. But there's nothing we can do about it.”
Cedercreutz's sailing partner, Noora Ruskola, was reportedly told by other sailors: “Your boat looks like a toilet.”
Spanish sailor Jordi Xammar, who will compete in the 470 class, told Associated Press: “The boats were completely brown. But the worst thing was we saw a lot of dead fish.”
As well as affecting athletes, the polluted waters have provoked anger from local fishermen in Guanabara Bay.
On 3 July, a group of fishermen staged a protest by sailing their boats into the bay in an effort to bring attention to the issue ahead of the Olympics.
The severe pollution is yet another problem facing Brazil in South America's first Olympic Games.
Last month, parts of a mutilated body washed up on a beach in Rio de Janeiro where beach volleyball teams will be competing within weeks at the Olympics, following a week of deadly gun battles in the city’s slums.
Drug resistant “super-bacteria” were said to have been found off Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic-designated beaches earlier in June.
The Zika virus, rising crime and violence, budget cuts and struggling ticket sales are all wider, ongoing challenges the country is trying to deal with before the Games begin on 5 August.
