Olympic swimmer Jolien Vermeylen said she ‘felt and saw things we shouldn’t think about’ while swimming in the River Seine.
The triathlete has shared the vile experience she had while competeing in the Summer 2024 Paris Olympics.
Vermeylen, competing for Belgium, claimed she felt debris floating in the water while taking part in her 1500-metre swim.
“While swimming under the bridge, I felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think about too much,”
Finishing 24th, she claimed she ingested a large amount of the polluted water and was worried it would make her unwell.
“We’ll know tomorrow if I’m sick or not,” she said. “It doesn’t taste like Coca-Cola or Sprite, of course.”
Last month, tests were done on the quality and safety of the water which found that the level of E. coli was 10 times above acceptable levels, as reported by CBS News.
E. coli bacteria, often linked with fecal matter, can cause diarrhea, urinary tract infections, pneumonia and sepsis.
Organizers for the games said “Despite the improvement on the water quality levels in the last hours, the readings at some points of the swim course are still above the acceptable limits,”
Vermeylen has called out the organizers for allowing athletes to enter in the first place:
“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!” she said.
“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.
“It was now or never, and they couldn’t cancel the race completely either. Now they just have to hope that there won’t be too many sick athletes.”
