Belgium withdrew from Monday’s mixed relay triathlon at the 2024 Olympics after one of their athletes, Claire Michel, was struck by illness in Paris. The water quality in the River Seine has been a controversial talking point this summer, causing plenty of problems for the triathlon events.
Seine competed in the women’s triathlon on Wednesday, finishing 38th, but dropped out of the mixed relay, forcing Belgium to opt against competing.
According to De Standaard, one of Belgium’s biggest newspapers, the 35-year-old’s absence was due to her contracting E coli in the French capital.
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The issues with the River Seine postponed Sunday’s practice for the mixed relay for the second successive day after delaying the men’s triathlon by a day.
Teams requested to delay the event to allow the athletes more preparation time, but those cries were ignored.
A World Triathlon and Paris 2024 statement read: “The latest test results confirm that Seine water-quality levels at the triathlon venue have improved in recent hours, with forward-looking analysis indicating that water quality will be within the levels acceptable by World Triathlon.”
Olympics organisers claim that French authorities have invested around £1.2billion on a regeneration project to make the Seine safe to swim in this summer.
Swimming in the river had been banned for over 100 years due to high pollution levels and the risk of disease, sparking mass uncertainty about its suitability for the Paris Games.
But Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo recently attempted to prove a point about the city’s clean-up efforts by swimming in the Seine herself.
And daily tests carried out before the triathlon competitions at the 2024 Olympics showed that the water was safe for the athletes.
Both men’s and women’s triathlons were able to take place on Wednesday after heavy rainfall in the days prior caused the water quality to decline, hampering practice sessions.
While not specifying what illness Michel was suffering from, the Belgian Olympic Committee stated that it hopes “lessons will be learned for future triathlon competitions.”
Michel’s illness follows similar issues for Switzerland’s Adrien Briffod, who was ruled out of the mixed relay with a stomach infection on Saturday.
Team GB entered a strong team for Monday’s mixed relay, including men’s gold medal winner Alex Yee, women’s bronze medallist Beth Potter, Georgia Taylor Brown and Sam Dickinson.
The River Seine will host the Olympic marathon swimming on August 8 and 9 before the Paralympics’ Para-triathlon event takes to the water in September.
