Tyler Mislawchuk alarmed a global audience on Wednesday, unleashing a viral vomiting spree after navigating the controversial Olympic triathlon course in Paris through the Seine River.
The Canadian athlete insisted, however, that his sudden sickness resulted from overexertion and rising temperatures in the French capital rather than any sanitary issues with Paris' main waterway.
"For me, whether I was fourth or 55th it doesn’t really matter," Mislawchuk told Triathlon Magazine . "I tried to win a medal and I went out there and was basically in third place with the two French guys for five and a half or 6 km.
"At my last Olympics, there was the injury and with all the stuff that happened there was a lot of ‘what ifs.’ I have no ‘what ifs’ on the day, I went for it, it was absolutely everything. I vomited 10 times after the race … it got hot in the last laps."
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An amalgam of three original Olympic sports, the cycling and running portions of Wednesday's race circled many of Paris' most iconic streets, including the Boulevard Saint-Germain and the Champs-Elysees. The 1.5-kilometer swimming course took place right along the circuit in the Seine River, drawing controversy for exposing athletes to the famously polluted river.
The City of Light invested $1.5 billion into cleaning the waterway, which had long been off-limits to local swimmers, capturing excess rainwater and preventing unrelated waste from flowing into the Seine among other solutions. However, the same torrential rain that marred the Opening Ceremony also saw E-coli levels exceed the World Triathlon water safety guidelines, delaying the race from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Along with dangerous bacterial levels in the Seine, this summer's Games have struggled to contend with a blistering heat wave rolling through the French capital. Temperatures in the French capital peaked at 95 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday and reached a high of 86 on race day.
Mislawchuk was uniquely impacted by the boiling temperatures as he hails from suburban Winnipeg, the famously frigid city that has reached 85 degrees on just five occasions this year. The Canadian ultimately finished in ninth, 68 seconds behind the British champion Alex Yee.
"First I want to thank my supporters around the world. Without them I wouldn’t be here," Mislawchuk said. "I’m just a kid from Winnipeg, well, specifically Oak Bluff, where it’s –50 in the winter, and I’m here at the Summer Olympics. You know, I came fourth at the Manitoba Games, I couldn’t even get on the podium there. 15 years later, I’m fighting for a medal at the Olympics."
"For me, I did everything I could over the last three years. I came back from an Achilles tear, concussion, crashes. You name it, I’ve had it in the last three years. I got to the start line healthy and gave it my all, I’m proud of the effort. You want more, but that’s all I had."
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