Rio 2016 | Unfurnished apartments, lack of chairs, and TV sets welcome Indian hockey teams in Olympic village

ByArun S Kaimal, SportsCafe Editor

08/01/2016

The Indian hockey teams who landed in Rio were in for a rude shock after being greeted by unfurnished apartments with no chairs and TV sets. With less than five days remaining for the Games, the organisers are battling fires that are popping out of every possible place – literally and otherwise.

In a letter to Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent Rakesh Gupta, the Dutchman complained about the accommodation provided to both the men’s and women’s hockey teams for the Rio Games.

"The apartments of the Rio Olympics are not furnished properly," Oltmans, who is also the High-Performance Director of Indian hockey, wrote in his letter, reported PTI.

"For athletes who have to perform at top-level during a longer period of the Olympics, we need proper chairs and tables in the apartments for 6 persons. Actually, there are only 2 chairs in each apartment.

The apartments of the Rio Olympics are not furnished properly."

Roelant Oltmans

"For men and women we are using 9 apartments so there is a lack of 28 proper chairs and for 7 Apartments we need at least one table as well. In the staff apartments we've managed to bring in some tables," he said.

"During the Olympics, we would like to give our players the possibility to watch the matches of our competitors live on TV. This will help the players to prepare themselves for the upcoming matches against these opponents."

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The Indian men’s and women’s hockey team arrived in Rio on Saturday (July 30) and have been staying in the Olympics village ever since their arrival. In a separate letter, the hockey coach also asked for permission to buy TV sets for the teams.

"Thank you very much to offer your TV to our team to be able to watch the hockey matches during the Olympic Games. I've tried to rent more TVs but unfortunately they are sold out in the Village.

I would like to get permission to purchase 3 TVs to be able to follow the hockey competition in both the staff rooms and at least in one of the male and female Apartments."

Roelant Oltmans

"I would like to get permission to purchase 3 TVs to be able to follow the hockey competition in both the staff rooms and at least in one of the male and female Apartments," the Dutchman wrote, reported PTI.

"I also tried to rent more chairs but at this moment there are no chairs available in the Village. We're pleased you've given us some chairs but in the end, we need proper furniture for all the players. Spending too much time in bean chairs might occur back injuries for the players.

"Please help us to find a solution. We all want our hockey teams to perform well but we need to support them as well with the right conditions," Oltmans concluded.

The complaints from the Indian hockey team are likely to cause more headache to the organisers of the Olympics. This comes a day after Australian athletes complained about a theft of computers and team shirts from the village. The athletes had also complained about exposed wiring and blocked toilets in the Olympics village.

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