In news that will shock absolutely no one, two Olympic athletes who competed in the triathlon in the Seine River have fallen seriously ill, with one having to pull out of their next event due to sickness.
On Sunday local time, the Belgian and Interfederal Committee released a statement announcing that the Belgian triathlon team would not be taking part in the mixed relay in Paris due to athlete Claire Michel falling ill.
The 35-year-old athlete had competed in the women’s triathlon event on July 30 and was expected to compete with her team the Belgian Hammers in the relay event on August 5. While the statement didn’t go into details about what illness she’s suffering from, Belgian reports strongly suggest it was due to an infection caused by E. Coli bacteria.
The committee also stated that it hoped “lessons will be learned for the next triathlon competition at the Olympic Games.”
But Michel isn’t the only athlete who has gotten sick after competing in the Seine. Reportedly, Swiss athlete Adrien Brifford fell ill with an E. coli-related stomach infection and was forced to pull out of the mixed relay event as a result.
According to ESPN, the Swiss Olympic team said it was “impossible to say” whether his gastrointestinal infection was linked to the Seine’s water quality.
Due to the rain in Paris days before the mixed relay event, there was some speculation over whether it would take place. However, after a meeting with the Olympic big dogs, it was announced on Sunday that the relay would be going ahead after the water quality levels had apparently improved.
“Following requests from the triathlon teams to provide the athletes with more time to prepare for the upcoming Mixed Relay competition, a meeting took place today August 4th at 19:00 to review the water quality results, with representatives from World Triathlon, Paris 2024, the International Olympic Committee, Météo France, DRIEAT, the City of Paris and the Prefecture of the Île-de-France Region involved in carrying out water quality tests,” the statement read.
“During this meeting, World Triathlon took the decision to move ahead with the Mixed Relay competition, scheduled for Monday, August 5, at 8am (CEST)”.
Previously, the men’s individual triathlon had to be postponed due to unsafe bacteria levels in the river.
The safety of the River Seine had been called into question since before the 2024 Paris Olympics kicked off. After all, the river has been notably dirty and unsafe to swim in due to rampant pollution since 1923.
In an effort to see Olympians take a dip in one of the country’s biggest attractions, the French Government launched a controversial initiative to clean up the Seine at the cost of around $2.3 million AUD.
The French public wasn’t too happy with their government making big claims that the Seine would be safe to swim in by the start of the Olympics — despite the alarming levels of E. coli and enterococci bacteria — and began a jokey protest to shit in the Seine.
But on July 17, Mayor Anne Hidalgo went for a splash to prove to the public (and the world) that the nasty river actually was a-okay to swim in despite the shit-threats.
So while we can’t say with 100 per cent clarity that it is the River Seine making athletes sick, it’s not looking too good for Paris’ big brown snake, if you ask me.
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