Here’s What a Microbiologist Thinks of the Seine Olympic Swimming Situation

Within the months main as much as the Paris Video games, one of many greatest 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 number of the swimming occasions.

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

On August 4, Belgium even pulled out of the mixed-relay occasion scheduled for the subsequent 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 instances (and if any of them have been attributable to swimming in soiled water), the event underscores the security issues athletes and public well being specialists 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 Faculty of Drugs, tells SELF. “There’s lots of sewage that creeps into the river. And there’s lots of erosion that happens with the soil washing potential animal feces into the water as effectively.” Mixed, these two components could make for lots of nasties—like E. coli, the parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia, and an entire slew of different bugs, in line with Dr. Sullivan.

And whilst you may suppose that the chance decreases after a downpour—recent water is sweet, proper?!—the other is definitely true, in line with Dr. Sullivan. Heavy rain is a very large danger 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 have been in a position to swim within the Seine after last-minute take a look at outcomes have been deemed “compliant” by World Triathlon, the game’s governing physique, in line with 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 exams, which confirmed the micro organism rely to be inside the vital limits, because the Related Press reported.

However even a stellar take a look at end result isn’t a conclusive assure of swimming security: Exams actually solely goal sure species of fecal micro organism, successfully utilizing E. coli as a proxy for different bugs, Dr. Sullivan says. Beneath most circumstances, that’s “in all probability okay, nevertheless it’s not a 100% assurance that the water is freed from a few of these different pathogens as effectively.” Total, he says, the entire swimming scenario makes him “fairly nervous.”