How much would it stink to be a world class athlete and have to pull out of the Olympics due to the air quality at the venue?

Haile Gebrselassie, the world’s leading long-distance runner, who suffers from asthma, has already pulled out of the marathon.

I've been wondering how bad the air would be at the Olympics, and it looks like I have my anser - from the London Times:

Last week The Sunday Times used an industrial hand-held air monitor to measure the number of particles in the atmosphere, which include car emissions and coal dust from factories. The particles are considered the biggest polluting factor.

The average reading at the stadium was 780,000 particles per litre of air. Even factoring in a 25% margin of error for humidity levels exaggerating the readings, this is more than five times the amount deemed safe by the WHO. The organisation considers 105,000 particles per litre of air a health risk.

I don't pretend to be an expert on this sort of thing, so I can't tell just how bad that is. However, I think the fact that a marathoner has pulled out over the air quality speaks for itself...

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