Rio: It has become one of the most familiar images of Rio 2016: the lurid green water of the diving pool next to the clear blue water polo pool. But opinion is divided among competitors in the aquatic events over whether anything should be done to kill off the algae being blamed for the unusual hue.

Divers say the green water actually helps them, by making it easier to distinguish between the water and the sky as they are spinning. However, water polo players say the extra chlorine being put into their pool to prevent a similar colour change is stinging their eyes and making them feel ill. Team USA men’s water polo captain Tony Azevedo said he could “barely” keep his eyes open towards the end of his team’s 6-3 victory over France on Wednesday. “This is the Olympic Games and they are putting so much chlorine in the water that people can’t see. You can’t have that,” he said. Games organisers initially said the open-air pool turned green because of algae, but have also suggested that excessive alkalinity could be the cause.

Meanwhile, Team GB’s Jack Laugher, who won gold with his partner Chris Mears in the 3m springboard event on Wednesday night, suggested ink might have leaked into the water from plastic boards around the pool. Olympics sources have suggested the pool managers ran out of chemicals and have now tried to “overcompensate” by putting too much chlorine in.

Australian water polo player star Richie Campbell said: “I don’t know what’s happened. I think they bumped up the chlorine or something because my eyes are stinging.

“It hurts at the end of the game and we’ll probably get teary eyes for the next couple of hours.” Mears, 23, jokingly referred to the diving pool as the “swamp pool” and said “it didn’t taste any different”.

“It kind of helped in a way because when you’re spinning around sometimes when you’re seeing a blue sky and a blue pool it can be quite difficult, but with a green pool it was pretty easy.” Laugher said: “We’ve got some big plastic boards that go into the water just for decoration and effect. But you can see on the waterline that they’re blue when below the waterline, and above the waterline it’s green. We think maybe a load of ink has run into the pool, potentially. It’s safe and the doctors have given it the all clear.”