An Olympic triathlete has said that she saw things 'we shouldn't talk about' while swimming in the Seine river.
In the run up to the 2024 Paris Olympics, organisers had championed that they wanted to clear the Seine and render it safe for use in the events.
The project included a $1.5 billion infrastructure project to clean up the water in the polluted river so it would be safe enough to swim in.
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But that ambition quickly went awry after an athlete became sick after swimming in the river which runs through Paris.
The triathlon was given the go ahead to proceed, despite concerns about high levels of E Coli in the water.
E Coli is often linked to faecal matter, and can cause a range of conditions including diarrhoea, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and sepsis.
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And despite the ambitious project to get the Seine cleaned up, triathlete Jolien Vermeylen revealed she had some unnerving encounters in the water.
Vermeylen, who was representing Belgium in the women's world triathlon, told how she had encountered debris in the water in the course of her 1500-meter swim in the Seine.
Speaking to Flemish TV channel VTM, she said: “While swimming under the bridge, I felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think about too much."
After finishing the race the athlete was left hoping that she would not become sick as a result of the swim.
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She said: “We’ll know tomorrow if I’m sick or not. It doesn’t taste like Coca-Cola or Sprite, of course.”
Vermeylen, who finished in 24th place, said that she had swallowed a lot of water during her swim in the river.
Back in June tests found levels of E Coli up to ten times the acceptable level.
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Organisers said: “Despite the improvement on the water quality levels in the last hours, the readings at some points of the swim course are still above the acceptable limits,”
Vermeylen pointed out that the Seine has a history of pollution, saying: “The Seine has been dirty for a hundred years, so they can’t say that the safety of the athletes is a priority. That’s bulls**t!”
The athlete took precautions before swimming as well.
She said: “I took pro-biotics, I drank my Yakult, I couldn’t do more. I had the idea of not drinking water, but yes, it failed.
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“It was now or never, and they couldn’t cancel the race completely either. Now they just have to hope that there won’t be too many sick athletes.”
UNILAD has reached out to Paris 2024 organisers for comment.
Kit Roberts