RIO DE JANEIRO -- Olympic officials gave up on cleaning the green-tinged water in one of the pools at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center, so they drained and transfered almost 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 athletes to spend much of their time underwater. He stressed that the kale-colored water posed no risk to the health of the athletes.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.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.Gustavo Nascimento, the director of venue management for Rio 2016, said the entire operation would take 10 hours -- six to drain the dirty water out of the competition pool and four to bring in the clean water using pumps and hoses. Synchronized swimmers were greeted by clear blue water in the competition pool Sunday after officials worked through the night.The larger pool had been used for water polo preliminary games. That sport was scheduled all along 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 the color of both pools seems to be returning to normal, 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 water that is being used for rowing, canoeing, sailing, triathlon and open water swimming.There are two warm-up 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 they are spinning through the air. No one has complained of any problems diving into the water, though there have been 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. Blake Jarwin Jersey .Y. -- Injured Buffalo Sabres forward Marcus Foligno did not practice with the team Monday and head coach Ron Rolston said its unlikely hell play in Wednesdays season opener in Detroit. Donovan Olumba Jersey . LOUIS -- Mike Smith is used to facing plenty of shots, so this was nothing new. http://www.cheapcowboysjerseyschina.com/chidobe-awuzie-jersey/ . Spiller left Week 3s 27-20 loss to the New York Jets with a thigh injury, but fully practiced with the team all week and expects to be ready to go on Sunday. Jourdan Lewis Jersey .C. -- When North Carolina freshman Ryan Switzer reported to training camp in August he was a little miffed to learn he was third on the depth chart at punt returner. Chris Westry Jersey . -- Jaye Marie Green shot a 4-under 68 on Thursday to increase her lead to five strokes after the second round of the LPGA Tours qualifying tournament. The 2016 wild-card races have been ones for the ages, with as many as four teams in contention in the American League entering the final weekend. As is typical, there has been quite a bit of turnover in the identities of playoff clubs from 2015 to 2016, and theres no reason to believe that wont again be the case in 2017. Though we have absolutely zero idea what any of the 30 MLB rosters will look like next Opening Day, lets take a swing at projecting four 2017 playoff qualifiers that didnt make the cut this time around.New York YankeesPlaying this projection game seems a bit easier in the AL. You might not remember considering their stay was so short, but the Yanks were actually 2015 playoff participants. The 2017 version of the Bronx Bombers are unlikely to resemble that group to any significant degree.The Yankees set the stage for a near-term resurgence witth a mid-2016 makeover featuring the retirement of Alex Rodriguez and the trades of bullpen anchors Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller, enabling their farm system to make the leap from really good to best in the game.ddddddddddddEach year, I prepare minor league position player and starting pi