Familiarisation trails in the River Seine for the marathon swimming events went ahead as planned Wednesday after more delays over water pollution. This came as a New Zealand swimmer said he was sick with E.coli-like symptoms after swimming the river for the triathlon last week.
New Zealand triathlete Hayden Wilde, who won silver in the triathlon last week, said that he and another teammate fell ill with E.coli symptoms in the two days after swimming in the River Seine during last week’s men’s triathlon.
“There was a bit of sickness within the team 48 hours after the race,” Wilde told New Zealand’s 1News after Monday’s mixed triathlon relay, in which the team came in 14th after Wile collided with a French athlete at the start of the cycle leg.
Belgian triathlete Claire Michel, who withdrew from the relay because of illness, said that E.coli was not to blame.
"Blood tests showed that I contracted a virus,” she wrote on Instagram Tuesday adding that she needed “significant medical attention” at the Olympic Village’s medical clinic.
Regular testing
Organisers have been testing the Seine regularly for levels of bacteria.
The IOC said it was “not aware of any particular case” where athletes had fallen ill and said some symptoms being talked about are “not completely unusual for competing triathletes”.
France has spent 1.4 billion euros on upgrading the city’s waste water systems to make the Seine clean enough for residents to swim in by next summer, but for the Games, athletes are forced to juggle cancelled test runs and last-minute race delays.
Huge River Seine stormwater basin opens ahead of Paris Olympics
The individual triathlon races were delayed last week because of unsafe levels of bacteria and familiarisation runs have been cancelled.
Athletes competing in Thursday and Friday's marathon swimming event were able to familiarise themselves with the route, the water temperature and currents Wednesday morning, as World Aquatics allowed a test run of the course to move forward as scheduled.
The water sport federation had cancelled a similar session planned for Tuesday because E.coli and enterococci levels were above its standards.
