Despite Kiwi 49er pair Peter Burling and Blair Tuke's 27-regatta winning streak ending earlier this month, the two are hopeful their training and preparation for the Rio waters will pay off.
Speaking with One News' Martin Tasker, Tuke said of Rio's polluted waters "it's not Auckland Harbour".
"It's not clean but it is what it is and we've got things in place to try and deal with that."
Precautions taken were outlined by Yachting NZ chief executive David Abercrombie, who said "you can't take your water bottle and put it in your mouth and then wipe your mouth or wipe your eyes. Your eye is a fantastic point of entry for infection so everything at the end of the day has to be wiped off".
The precautions seem to be paying off for the sailors who have already trained in Rio several times.
49er FX champion Alex Maloney said "we've been pretty fortunate not to get too sick and we've had really good experiences in Rio so hopefully that continues for this last trip".
On top of that, the New Zealand sailing team will not be staying at the athletes village in Rio, with officials instead opting for private accommodation closer to the Marina da Gloria base where the competition will be run from. Burling said while it will be good to have a quiet base handy to the venue, he doesn't intend on shutting himself off from the rest of the Olympic experience.
Burling told the New Zealand Herald "At the Olympics you can get caught up in all the other things, so it will be good to have our own little set-up for the sailing team. We still plan to go along to the opening ceremony and spend some time in the Village as our event doesn't until quite late, so it will be quite cool to experience that buzz and then go back and try and do our own job."
