The Rio Olympics are well underway and off to a cracking start.
There have been thrills, spills, a couple of gold medals and a few world records broken as the sporting spectacle looks to make up for some shaky months of planning.
In among all the sport, some eagle eyed viewers have been having a titter at one Olympic role: that of lifeguards in the Olympic swimming pool.
https://twitter.com/FrankDenneman/status/762379483735359488
Everyone is making the same joke.
Easiest job in world = Olympic pool lifeguard? pic.twitter.com/E73nhZ9WwB
— Rich Matulewicz (@RichMatulewicz) August 7, 2016
The poor lifeguard does look fed up to be fair…
The irony of having a lifeguard at an Olympic swim meet is comedy 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/c5FT0hGCSA
— WishGranted (@wishGRANTed_) August 7, 2016
In fact, all the hubbub caused normal, civilian lifeguards to pop up with a few pointers of the Olympic swimmers.
https://twitter.com/anuhleese/status/762468321526583296
My inner lifeguard just wants to yell at all these Olympic swimmers for climbing on the lane lines.
— Chad, The Gathering (@cheagin) August 8, 2016
We even had a look at the stats, and sure enough, there don’t appear to have been any drowning incidents involving Olympic swimming.
The serious *well actually* reason lifeguards are there appears to do with athletes suffering from heart failure.
“It is a Brazilian law that any public pool over a certain size has to have lifeguards,” Ricardo Prado, sport manager for aquatics, told Reuters.
But the fun *it’s a Monday morning, let people enjoy themselves before they have coffee reason* is maybe because lifeguards are there to make sure no one started sprinting. Or smoking. Or heavy petting. Or slips into the pool after one too many sips of celebratory medal winning champers. Or weeing in the pool.
When you’re being paid $340 [€306] for the fortnight (just above the average wage in Brazil), does it really matter?
