Timeline of Rio Olympic water testing broken promises

July 30 — The Associated Press publishes its first story based on data from five months of viral and bacterial testing of Rio's venues for Olympic water sports.

The medical director of the International Olympic Committee says in response that there are no plans to change venues and that the World Health Organization, which acts in an advisory role for the IOC, has reassured Olympic officials there is "no significant risk of athlete health."

July 31 — The Rio de Janeiro state government and the state environmental agency blast the AP report as alarmist and say it is unfair to judge Rio's waters based on viral counts, limits of which are not designated in Brazilian legislation — or most nations.

David Zee, an oceanography professor at Rio's state university who has studied pollution in Guanabara Bay for decades and had no part in the AP study, says: "It's natural that the authorities react saying that 'everything is fine,' but everything is not fine."

Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi says IOC will be sticking to WHO guidelines recommending only bacterial testing.

In a telephone interview with the AP, Bruce Gordon, WHO's top water safety expert, says that while bacterial testing is the global standard, WHO would support additional viral testing to further inform the risk assessment by authorities and to verify and address concerns raised by independent testing.

Sept. 16 — The international swimming federation calls for Olympic officials to carry out viral testing in Rio, according to an internal document obtained by the AP.

Mario Andrada, spokesman for Rio's Olympic organizing committee, says they consider that to be "the final instructions for Rio 2016" and that viral testing will not be done.

[...] we have experts engaged on examining the best monitoring protocols and we will be discussing virus testing at an upcoming meeting in Brazil.