- Disgusted triathlete reveals what it’s like to swim in the Seine
- She branded it “nonsense” for bosses to be concerned about athletes after a £1.2bn clean-up.
- The triathlons were held after the postponement with a mixed relay on August 5.
A disgusted triathlete has revealed how disgusting it is to swim in the River Seine and slammed organisers for keeping Olympic athletes safe.
Belgian star Jolien Vermeylen was part of the contingent that swam 1.5 kilometres in the Seine on Wednesday while Britain’s Beth Potter took home a bronze medal.
The women’s triathlon was postponed on Tuesday after tests revealed the Seine was not clean enough to swim in.
Around £1.2bn has been spent cleaning up a river that had been banned from swimming for 100 years but which as recently as June had levels of E. coli bacteria 10 times higher than permitted.
“While I was under the bridge, I felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think about too much,” Vermeylen told VTM.
Jolien Vermeylen said she “felt and saw things” she didn’t want to think about on the Seine
The triathlete said it was “nonsense” that the safety of athletes was a priority as they were forced to swim in the river despite it having been previously banned for 100 years.
“The Seine has been dirty for a hundred years, so they can’t say that the safety of athletes is a priority. That’s nonsense!”
A statement from Paris 2024 and World Triathlon said: ‘Paris 2024 and World Triathlon reiterate that their priority is the health of the athletes.’
Vermeylen, who finished 24th, added: “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.
“If the race had not taken place, it would have been a disgrace for the organisation, for Paris, for France. It was now or never, and they couldn’t cancel the race altogether either.
“Now we just have to hope that there aren’t too many athletes who get sick. I took probiotics, I drank my Yakult, I couldn’t do anything else.
“I had the idea of not drinking water, but yes, it failed. Just like I had the idea of not falling, but that also failed.”
There were fears that Olympic chiefs might have to cancel the swimming segment of the triathlon and turn it into a duathlon.
Triathlon training on the Seine was cancelled on Sunday and Monday, leaving athletes unsure whether the swim would take place or not.
Beth Potter took bronze in the women’s triathlon after training was suspended
Around £1.2bn was spent on regenerating the river, but multiple tests found it to be dirty.
Alex Yee won one of two golds for Team Great Britain on Wednesday with a last-minute victory in the triathlon.
A French water charity has found “alarming” levels of bacteria in all but one of 14 samples taken from the Seine in the six months to April.
Swimming in the Seine, which runs through Paris, has been banned since 1923. In 1990, Jacques Chirac, then mayor of the city, declared that he would clean it up enough to allow entry, but failed in his mission.
Parisians had threatened to defecate in the river during preparations for the Olympics in protest at apparently ineffective spending to clean it up.
Meanwhile, the Paris 2024 CEO refused to apologise to competitors when asked by Mail Sport if he would do so.
“We have to wait,” says Etienne Thobois. “We don’t create fictional scenarios. We are very respectful of the athletes. They are the heart of the Games. We have done everything possible in conjunction with the international federations and public authorities to achieve the goal of swimming in the Seine, which will be a fantastic legacy.”
While Potter took bronze in the women’s triathlon, Alex Yee claimed gold in the men’s version.
Yee gathered reserves of energy in the final moments of the race, overtaking an exhausted Hayden Wilde in the final moments and finishing six seconds ahead of the New Zealand athlete.
The mixed triathlon relay event will be held on August 5.