Belgium's relay team elected to forfeit the mixed triathlon competition on Monday with athlete Claire Michel currently in the hospital after battling sickness for the past four days.
Belgian outlet De Standaard reports that Michel tested positive for E-coli bacteria after competing in the women's triathlon on July 31. Her condition has fomented outrage over Paris' unsanitary Seine River, where distance swimming events have taken place for the 2024 Olympics.
“The BOIC and Belgian Triathlon unfortunately have to announce that the Belgian Hammers will not start in the Mixed Relay competition at the Paris Games tomorrow," the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee wrote in a statement on Sunday.
"This decision, as well as the communication about it, was made in consultation with the athletes and the entourage. The BOIC and Belgian Triathlon already hope that lessons will be learned for future triathlon competitions. We are thinking of training days that can be guaranteed, match days and formats that are clear in advance and circumstances that do not cause uncertainty for athletes, entourage and fans.”
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Monday's event has also been impacted by the delays and cancellations that have become painfully familiar for marathon swimming fans and competitors. A scheduled familiarisation swim for the relay competition was canceled over an expected dip in water quality, a scratch that comes after the same practice event was canceled for the individual event on July 28 and the men's triathlon was postponed from Monday to Tuesday.
And while Michel marks the first public hospitalization among swimmers or triathletes, the cleanliness of Paris' main waterway has been a source of intense scrutiny ahead of this summer's Olympic Games. Belgian triathlete Jolien Vermeylen, who competed alongside her compatriot on July 31, offered alarming insight on the river quality to local TV station VTM.
"While swimming under the bridge, I felt and saw things that we shouldn't think about too much," Vermeylen said. "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. The Seine has been dirty for a hundred years, so they can't say the safety of the athletes is a priority."
As Vermeylen notes, the Seine developed a reputation as a notoriously dirty waterway, in which swimming has been illegal for the past century. However, with the triathlon's biking and swimming circuit occupying many of Paris' most iconic streets, including the Champs-Elysses and the Boulevard Saint-Germain, Olympic organizers desired an approximate course and spent $1.5 billion cleaning the river.
In the days leading up to the competition, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo attempted to prove the Seine's new cleanliness by taking a swim in the river, but heavy rain during the opening ceremony undid many of these costly precautions. The precipitation increased the concentration of E-coli colony-forming units well over the safe limit established by a 2006 European Union directive. Further testing ruled the river safe for the previous men's and women's triathlon competitions despite Michel's condition.
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