er, a 1-mile concrete track where he has struggled in recent years

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Olympic officials gave up on cleaning the green-tinged water in one of the pools at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center. Instead, they began draining it Saturday and planned to transfer nearly 1 million gallons of clear water from a nearby practice pool in time for the start of synchronized swimming.Mario Andrada, a spokesman for Rio 2016, said the radical measure was necessary to ensure clear water for both judges and competitors during an event that requires swimmers to spend much of their time underwater.He stressed again that the kale-colored water posed no risk to the health of the athletes. An adjacent, smaller pool will continue to be used for the diving competition, even though it remains murky. American diver Abby Johnston has dubbed it the swamp.Of course it is an embarrassment because we are hosting the Olympic Games, Andrada said. It should be light blue, transparent. We could have done better in fixing it quickly. We learned a painful lesson the hard way.While the womens 3-meter springboard semifinals were held at one end of the facility Saturday, the bigger pool was slowly being drained. It had already dropped several inches as officials scurried around the deck, checking the water level and hauling out pumps and hoses that were to be used for the transfer.Gustavo Nascimento, director of venue management for Rio 2016, said the entire operation will take 10 hours -- six to drain the dirty water out of the competition pool and four to bring in clean water using the pumps and hoses. He said it should be completed by 7 a.m. Sunday, four hours before the scheduled start of the first synchronized swimming event of the games.Thats going to be an impressive feat, American diver Kassidy Cook, if they can pull it off.The larger pool had been used for water polo preliminary games. That sport was already scheduled to move to the 15,000-seat Olympic Aquatics Stadium after the final session of swimming Saturday night.The water in the diving well turned a dark shade of green Tuesday, and the larger pool began to turn the same color the following day. While both pools seem to be improving a bit, Nascimento said there was not enough time to complete the cleaning process by Sunday.He blamed a contractor for mistakenly dumping hydrogen peroxide into the pool late last week, which caused an adverse reaction when it mixed with chlorine. The dirty water will be disposed of using the citys sewage system, which has already come under intense scrutiny for dumping untreated waste into waters that are being used for rowing, canoeing, sailing, triathlon and open water swimming.There are two warmup pools at Maria Lenk, and neither was affected by the issues inside the stadium. The one used by water polo teams will be drained since it wont be needed after Saturday, while the synchronized swimmers will continue to have use of their practice pool.Some divers have said the green water actually helps them during competition by giving them a contrast with the blue sky when theyre spinning through the air.Others had a different view.Today was pretty gross, Australias Maddison Keeney said after Saturdays competition. Youre standing on the stairs and you cant see your feet, one and half meters down. When youre standing up there its a bit off-putting. Ive never had a pool like this ever before. I just try to close my eyes and close my mouth. Hopefully I am going up and not down.There were plenty of snarky posts on social media. After the diving pool was closed for a scheduled practice session Friday, Germanys Patrick Hausding posted a couple of pictures, one holding his nose with the caption Good morning from the green lake!Andrada stressed that Rio officials had been able to solve myriad issues plaguing the games, but conceded they were out of short-term options when it came to the green water. A day before, he attempted to explain trouble fixing the water by declaring that chemistry is not an exact science.This is probably the only problem we were unable to solve quickly, he said. The embarrassment wont last forever.Rio officials are also dealing with another aquatics venue mishap.The starting platform for the open water course broke into three pieces in bad weather, forcing the cancellation of practice Saturday at Fort Copacabana. A backup platform is set to be brought in for the womens 10-kilomter race Monday.One piece from the shattered platform washed up on the famous beach at Copacabana.Twenty water polo games have been played at Maria Lenk since the water began to change. While some players complained about a burning sensation in their eyes, apparently caused by extra chlorine being added to the water in an attempt to clean it, no major issues were reported.At the end of the day, yeah, the color of the pool may be different or the pH level is whatever it is, but its a pool, U.S. womens captain Maggie Steffens said. If youre a competitor like we all are, if youre here for the right reasons, youre not worried about that. Youre worried about playing the game.---AP Sports Writer Jay Cohen contributed to this report.---Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 and Beth Harris at www.twitter.com/bethharrisap .Cheap Adidas Ireland . After slipping from the summit during the week, the Gunners overcame struggling Crystal Palace 2-0 on Sunday thanks to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlains second-half brace. Stan Smith Ireland Store . Kiriasis and brakeman Franziska Fritz finished two runs in one minute 55.41 seconds -- a mere 0.01 seconds ahead of Meyers and Lolo Jones, who likely bolstered her Olympic hopes by helping give USA-1 a huge push in the second heat. http://www.stansmithsaleireland.com/ . -- Ryan Getzlaf grabbed the three pucks wrapped in tape and held them up to his chest in the Anaheim Ducks dressing room for a celebration nine seasons in the making. Cheap Stan Smith Ireland From China . SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. Discount Stan Smith Ireland . The Dane followed up his first European Tour title last weekend with eight birdies and just a single dropped shot on Thursday for a one-stroke advantage over South Africas Allan Versfeld and Portugals Ricardo Santos.CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Tony Stewart admits he faces a very steep, uphill battle to avoid elimination Sunday from the Chase for the Sprint Cup at Dover International Speedway.But he also readily admits that theres only so much he can do, and the frustration that a driver plays only so much -- or so little -- of a role in a sport that has become increasingly reliant on engineering is one of the reasons he will retire from Cup racing after this season.When we come off the truck [on Friday], we fight the same thing for three days and theres nothing I can do to fix it, Stewart told reporters Wednesday during a NASCAR-mandated media tour as part of his Chase obligations. Thats whats so frustrating for me as a driver. That is part of why Im ready to do something different is because I cant make a difference anymore.I cant do different things with my feet and different things with my hands and run a different line and fix the problem. I used to be able to do that. I cant do that anymore. You just get so frustrated you cant see straight.The three-time Cup champion joked about trying to not get suspended for his final eight races if he said too much, acknowledging he is exhausted from trying to play a role of outspoken veteran in a sport where he believes the drivers are often afraid to share their feelings.You can only beat the drum for so long and it can only fall on deaf ears for so long before you finally say, The people that need to make it better cant make it better, Stewart said.Stewart, 45, said Ive had my fill of fighting the fight as the driver to draw attention to issues of the way the sport operates.Theres 39 of these guys that 99 out of 100 times wont say a thing about it to [the media] or NASCAR or anybody else, and Im the one guy that most of the time will go, Man, this is a bad thing to talk about and I shouldnt taalk about it, but Ill get pissed off enough to talk about it, Stewart said.ddddddddddddecause I believe its worth talking about, and its worth addressing and its worth it at times when youre not getting their attention, youre like, OK, now Ive got to go a different way to get their attention to do something about it. That normally is when I get slapped on the hand with a fine.That doesnt mean Stewart is dreading the next eight weeks. He is 11 points out of the current Chase cutoff heading into Dover, a 1-mile concrete track where he has struggled in recent years.Ive got to go out and do the best I can with what Ive got, he said. Hopefully its good enough. If its not, its not. ... Right now, Im in a large, dark room and dont know where the wall is, let alone the light switch [to flip to run well].While Stewart plans to retire from Cup racing, he said he has told his sprint-car team management to be ready for him to run 40-50 races next season. He will have to wait until February to race because he will have screws taken out of his back -- he missed the first eight Cup races this year after suffering a broken back in a hard landing while driving a dune buggy -- in December. He said his first race next year will be on pavement and will be in someone elses equipment, but he wouldnt reveal more than that.Im going to enjoy these last eight weeks, no matter what happens this weekend, he said. Am I going to be upset if I dont make it to the next round? Yeah, absolutely. Thats natural. Thats what a competitor should be like.But if we dont, its not the end of my year. I have got seven more weeks after this weekend to go and do the best I can, try to get another win and try to finish on a high note. ' ' '