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

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

Because the Video games progressed, hypothesis solely intensified. Prematurely of the boys’s and ladies’s particular person triathlons on July 31, the swimming parts of apply 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 circumstances. Then, information broke over the weekend that a number of opponents had fallen ailing 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 instances (and if any of them have been brought on by 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 could be held within the iconic Paris waterway.

“Swimming’s been banned in that river for a few hundred years as a result of it has, notoriously, been soiled,” Invoice Sullivan, PhD, a microbiologist and professor on the Indiana College Faculty of Medication, tells SELF. “There’s a number of sewage that creeps into the river. And there’s a number 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 a complete slew of different bugs, based on Dr. Sullivan.

And whilst you would possibly suppose that the danger decreases after a downpour—recent water is sweet, proper?!—the alternative is definitely true, based on Dr. Sullivan. Heavy rain is a very huge 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 value 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 check outcomes have been deemed “compliant” by World Triathlon, the game’s governing physique, based on 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 checks, which confirmed the micro organism rely to be throughout the needed limits, because the Related Press reported.

However even a stellar check end result 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. Below most circumstances, that’s “most likely okay, however it’s not a 100% assurance that the water is freed from a few of these different pathogens as effectively.” General, he says, the entire swimming scenario makes him “fairly nervous.”