An Australian swimmer took Mary Poppins’ “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” literally at the Paris Olympics, drinking a soft drink to ward off infection from the filthy River Seine.
Moesha Johnson swam a brilliant race to take silver behind Dutch open water legend Sharon van Rouwendaal at the Paris Olympics after water quality issues overshadowed the event.
The two-hour marathon along the Seine was given the green light to go ahead on Thursday, though not without controversy ahead of the event.
This came after Paris organisers cancelled the Olympics’ open water swimming training in the polluted Seine due to water quality concerns.
This was the fifth time organizers had canceled training on the river since the Games began on July 28.
A statement from World Aquatics and the organising committee said on Tuesday that one in four readings of enterococcus bacteria in the river, an indicator of the presence of faecal matter, was above the authorised upper limit.
This comes after the French government spent €1.4 billion trying to clean up wastewater from the River Seine to make it clean enough to swim in before the Games.
Swimmers in Paris began spreading the idea that a can of Coca Cola would kill off unwanted bacteria, leading many to drink the popular sugar-laden soft drink before the race.
Australian swimmer Moesha Johnson braved the water conditions on the River Seine to claim the silver medal in open water swimming in Paris
Training sessions were cancelled due to water quality issues, prompting swimmers to take precautions against possible infections, including drinking cans of Coca Cola.
Johnson congratulates gold medal winner Sharon van Rouwendaal of Team Netherlands
That included Johnson, although she said the water quality didn’t really bother her.
“If Coca-Cola is listening, this is their signal. Yes, I’ve had a Coke, but I’m going to go home and take some antibiotics, too,” Johnson said.
“To be honest, I’ve been in worse water. It’s not about what the water looks like. I’ve swum in very brown water and the quality was very good. It’s just about what the data shows us. It’s always going to be dramatic (in the media).”
While Johnson claims water quality was not an issue, he admitted he had a very revealing song lyric playing in his mind throughout the race.
“I had this song stuck in my head the whole time,” he said.
‘Especially against the current, because all you’re trying to do is stay calm.
“Do you know the song Poison? It was playing around in my head.
“It’s very ironic because of the quality of the water.”
It is unclear whether he had Alice Cooper’s Poison, Bell Biv Devoe’s or the short-lived Australian pop group Bardot’s version stuck in his head.
Did Johnson have Alice Cooper’s version of Poison stuck in his head during open water swimming at the Paris Olympics?
Or maybe he was internally humming Australian pop star Bardot’s hit Poison.
Meanwhile, it was Moesha’s name, not her swimming ability, that puzzled some people on social media because it is commonly associated with African-American women.
“A white woman named Moesha Johnson,” one mused.
“There’s a swimmer in the Olympics named Moesha Johnson, and I need to know the story behind how her parents made that decision,” another posted.
“But also a white woman named Moesha Johnson?” asked a third.
While the name Moesha became very popular in the African-American community in the early 2000s, it turns out that it is not explicitly linked to any race.
The name Moesha exploded in popularity in the African-American community after the hit show starring Brandy aired in the late 1990s.
Although some historians believe that the name Moesha could be derived from the Hebrew Moses or the Swahili Maisha, the truth is that the name has no traditional or widely recognized etymology.
In fact, it is widely acknowledged that the name comes from the American television sitcom Moesha, which aired from 1996 to 2001 and starred the late Grammy Award-winning R&B singer and actor Brandy Norwood.
It is likely a modern, invented name, possibly derived from or influenced by names such as Moira, Monisha, or Keisha, which are of Irish, African, or African-American origin, respectively.
The sitcom Moesha played a major role in bringing the name into mainstream culture, especially in African-American communities.
Moesha Mitchell, the character, was portrayed as a strong, intelligent, and independent young woman, which contributed to the name becoming associated with these qualities.
While the name Moesha saw a surge in usage in the late 1990s and early 2000s, largely due to the television show, it remains relatively rare and not commonly used today.