Rio athletes' village is getting better after several complaints

RIO DE JANEIRO — A week before the Summer Olympics open here, the athletes' village is already colorful with national flags draped from its residential towers and loud with the chatter of athletes and crews in matching tracksuits strolling the forested grounds of the city's Olympic zone.

It's been a week of intense work for local crews at the Olympic Village following a series of public complaints by foreign teams as they arrived. On Thursday, eight days before the Games open, Rio 2016 spokesman Philip Wilkinson said that a task force had completed all the necessary amendments to the village that will house thousands of athletes and delegates.

Shortly after arriving, Australia's team complained of blocked sinks, exposed electrical wires and toilets that did not flush; the delegation's organizer called the lodgings "not habitable" and members moved to a hotel for several days. Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes publicly apologized to the Australian delegation, which gave him a stuffed kangaroo as a token of forgiveness.

The Australian team also briefly evacuated its lodgings after a small fire Friday believed to be started by a cigarette. Belarus, Kenya, Sweden and Argentina similarly complained about the state of their lodgings. The head of the Argentine delegation even went as far to accuse crews of "sabotage" and said that the village's problems were not simply untidiness but large stray blocks of cement and blocked water pipes.

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Even after the local organizing committee deemed the apartments fit, several teams of athletes declined to speak with USA TODAY Sports on Saturday when asked about the state of the village inside. Buses of newcomers arriving at the main check-in also seemed nonplussed by a pungent stream of gray and brown sludge smelling of fresh sewage that ran along the Olof Palme Avenue that forms the northeastern border of the 31-building complex.

Borut Kolaric, an attaché for the Slovenian team who has been in the village for 10 days, said the buildings' issues were being resolved at a rapid pace and that he encouraged his athletes to have a cooperative attitude.

"In the beginning there were some issues," said Kolaric. Local organizers "jumped together" following athletes' complaints and were "eager" to resolve them.  "Everybody says it is getting better, not worse," he added.