Times of India: Oltmans complains about lack of chairs, TV sets in Olympic Village

RIO DE JANEIRO: The Indian hockey teams at the Olympics are facing a shortage of chairs and Television sets at the Games Village and chief coach Roelant Oltmans has complained that the players’ apartments are not properly furnished.

In a letter to Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent Rakesh Gupta, Oltmans complained about unfurnished accommodation provided to both the men’s and women’s hockey teams.
“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.

“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.
“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.”
In another letter, Oltmans asked for Chef de Mission’s permission to purchase TV sets for the hockey 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 TV’s 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,” the Dutchman wrote.

“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 Rio Games organisers have already faced complaints from Australia and several other teams about unfinished rooms at the Olympic Village.
A few days ago, the Australian team had to be evacuated from their building at the Olympic Village because of a fire+ in the basement.