'Easy work, high salary' at the 2016 Olympics

The Olympic lifeguards also don't understand why they are there, when their assigned task is to save swimmers like Michael Phelps and Anh Vien from... drowning.

Many tourists who came to cheer for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro this year quickly recognized the bored faces sitting motionless in the swimming pool - next to the seats of the swimmers from other countries competing. Those are the Olympic lifeguards. Their assigned task is to rescue "super swimmers" likeMichael Phelps, Adam Peaty, Nguyen Thi Anh Vien... if they have problems.

The bored face of a lifeguard at the Rio Olympics. Their job is to keep swimmers like Michael Phelps from drowning. Photo: Metro.

According to many people, the possibility of these lifeguards having to do their duty is almost zero, because in front of them are all world-class swimmers. "They are being paid $338 for two weeks just to... do nothing. Super swimmers need to be saved? Isn't this the legendary easy, high-paying job?", a tourist humorously commented.

"They're getting paid to save Michael Phelps, how funny. And they get to watch the Olympics for free," commented a reader on Metro.

Ricardo Prato, director of the Rio Aquatics Center, is dead serious about hiring lifeguards. "It's mandatory in Brazil. Every pool of a certain size has to have lifeguards. We don't want them either, but we have to have them."

According to VNE