“Felt & Saw Things That We Shouldn’t Think About” – Triathlete Slams Olympics For Disgusting Condition Of Seine River

Olympic athletes are less than thrilled with the conditions of the Seine River.

The cleanliness of the Seine River has been a hot topic of conversation leading up to the commencement of the Summer Olympic Games. The notoriously nasty river water conditions have been an issue Paris has faced for many years. Still, when the city was named to hold the Olympic Games, officials were bound and determined to improve the river’s conditions, spending $1.5 billion to enhance water quality.

Jolien Vermeylen, representing Belgium, did not hold back after her swim in the Seine during her triathlon. The race was postponed after officials noted the levels of E. Coli and other bacteria were too high after the heavy rainfall from the first weekend of the games (insert pouring rain from the Opening Ceremony).

After officials gave the green light, the race took place Wednesday morning. If this doesn’t make your stomach churn, a June test showed that the river’s bacteria levels were ten times higher than the acceptable limit.

Although officials said the river was safe for athletes to swim in, the athletes had different opinions. Jolien Vermeylen, who finished 24th in the race, said she took precautions before the race to protect her body and slammed the officials for the water conditions after the race.

“While swimming under the bridge, I felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think about too much. 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!”

Metro reported. She also said that although she took probiotics and other supplements to hopefully combat any bacteria, due to the length of the race, ingesting some of the river’s water was unavoidable.

“I drank a lot of water, so we’ll know tomorrow if I’m sick or not. It doesn’t taste like Coca-Cola or Sprite, of course… 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.”

Ahead of the Olympics, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, swam in the river to prove that it was clean enough for athletes to swim in it, but I doubt her leisurely swim led to the same amount of water injected by triathletes.

Luckily for these athletes, their event has no qualifying round before the finals (a nice one-and-done event), so they do not need to bounce back after swimming in the river. Granted, no one wants to be sick for the remainder of their time in Paris.

The men’s triathletes also looked ill after finishing their swim in the river, with Tyler Mislawchuk, from Canada, blowing chunks after the finish line. Surely, there could have been another place the athletes could have swam in that wasn’t a risk to their health…

And granted, they’re most likely puking because of how hard they pushed themselves (you generally don’t vomit immediately when you contract a stomach virus), but it seems like it’s only a sign of things to come.