The list of Paris Olympians pulling out of competition because of water quality concerns with the Seine River added Sweden’s Victor Johansson Thursday.
Johansson pulled out of the Olympic men’s 10-kilometer event Friday after getting sick from swimming in the river during Olympic competition, he told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
Sweden’s Victor Johansson reacts after competing in a heat of the men’s 1500-meter freestyle swimming event during the Paris Olympics. (Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP)
Johansson said swimming in the river didn’t feel good from the start, and he knows for sure others have become ill.
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Since the Paris Olympics began, bacteria levels in the river have fluctuated and affected certain events. Test swims ahead of the triathlon events had to be canceled due to bacteria levels, and the men’s triathlon was delayed by a day for the same reason.
Florian Wellbrock from Germany swims in the Seine. (Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Johansson is not the first athlete to pull out of competition in Paris over concerns about the river. Belgium withdrew its entire team from the triathlon mixed relay Monday after Claire Michel of Belgium withdrew from the contest after feeling sick. However, Michel later said blood tests showed it was a virus that made her sick and not E. coli bacteria, which is said to be the biggest risk of swimming in the Seine.
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Belgium’s Jolien Vermeylen told TV channel VTM she felt debris in the water during her 1500-meter swim in the French river at the beginning of the women’s triathlon Wednesday.
Athletes dive into the Seine River at the start of the women’s 10-kilometer marathon swimming final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Pont Alexandre III bridge in Paris. (Martin Bureau/Pool/AFP)
About $1.5 billion was invested to upgrade the city’s sewer systems for the Olympics, promising the world the historically dirty, bacteria-filled river would be clean for residents to swim in.
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Under world triathlon guidelines, E. coli levels up to 1,000 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters can be considered “good” and allow competition to move forward. There have been daily water tests of the Seine during the Olympics.
Johansson, 25, is a first-time Olympian in Paris. In 2019, he won gold in the men’s 1500-meter freestyle event representing Sweden at the 2019 Summer Universiade in Naples, Italy.
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