Right here’s What a Microbiologist Thinks of the Seine Olympic Swimming Scenario

Within the months main as much as the Paris Video games, one of many largest questions wasn’t solely which athletes can be competing, however whether or not the Seine river would find yourself being secure sufficient to host them for a few of the swimming occasions.

Because the Video games progressed, hypothesis solely intensified. Upfront of the boys’s and girls’s particular person triathlons on July 31, the swimming parts of follow classes had been canceled as a result of water high quality issues, and when the occasions lastly did happen on July 31, athletes had been…lower than thrilled by the situations. Then, information broke over the weekend that a number of rivals had fallen in poor health after swimming within the Seine.

On August 4, Belgium even pulled out of the mixed-relay occasion scheduled for the following day after 35-year-old Claire Michel got here down with what the Belgian publication De Standaard reported was an E. coli an infection. Whereas it’s not clear if her sickness is linked to any of the opposite circumstances (and if any of them had been attributable to swimming in soiled water), the event underscores the protection issues athletes and public well being consultants have voiced ever because it was introduced that some Olympic occasions can be held within the iconic Paris waterway.

“Swimming’s been banned in that river for a couple of hundred years as a result of it has, notoriously, been soiled,” Invoice Sullivan, PhD, a microbiologist and professor on the Indiana College College of Medication, tells SELF. “There’s a whole lot of sewage that creeps into the river. And there’s a whole lot of erosion that happens with the soil washing potential animal feces into the water as nicely.” Mixed, these two components could make for lots of nasties—like E. coli, the parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia, and a complete slew of different bugs, in response to Dr. Sullivan.

And when you may suppose that the danger decreases after a downpour—contemporary water is sweet, proper?!—the alternative is definitely true, in response to Dr. Sullivan. Heavy rain is a extremely large threat issue, he says, particularly in previous cities like Paris which have extra antiquated sewer methods, as a result of the ensuing flooding washes all of the waste on land into the river. With that in thoughts, it’s price noting that rain fell within the days previous the triathlons, even on the opening ceremony.

Nevertheless, athletes had been capable of swim within the Seine after last-minute check outcomes had been deemed “compliant” by World Triathlon, the game’s governing physique, in response to NBC. Then the mixed-relay occasion scheduled for August 5 went forward as deliberate when officers—together with representatives for World Triathlon and the Worldwide Olympic Committee—met over the weekend to evaluation the most recent water high quality assessments, which confirmed the micro organism rely to be throughout the obligatory limits, because the Related Press reported.

However even a stellar check consequence isn’t a conclusive assure of swimming security: Checks actually solely goal sure species of fecal micro organism, successfully utilizing E. coli as a proxy for different bugs, Dr. Sullivan says. Underneath most circumstances, that’s “most likely okay, nevertheless it’s not a 100% assurance that the water is freed from a few of these different pathogens as nicely.” Total, he says, the entire swimming state of affairs makes him “fairly nervous.”