It was all kept a bit quiet – mainly because the Olympic Mixed Team Relay was to take place a few days after the individual races and athletes didn’t want to make their competitors any wiser – but now it turns out that a lot more athletes have fallen ill after the Olympic triathlons than initially believed. Biggest source of problems: the E. coli bacteria.
Earlier it appeared that the Belgian team could no longer compete because Claire Michel got sick thanks to that so-called “poop bacteria,” and Switzerland also had to replace two athletes due to illness. Now it appears that team New Zealand have also had problems: Hayden Wilde was infected by the E. coli bacteria and suffered 24 hours, while Ainsley Thorpe was also sick. In her case, it is not 100 percent certain that the E. coli bacteria is at the root of her illness, but her sickness symptoms fit the bill. Both athletes did appear in action during the Mixed Team Relay; they fared fit in time, although Thorpe in particular said she had not fully recovered.
The water quality of the Seine was a recurring issue around the Olympic triathlons: swim course reconnaissance was cancelled for all races and the men’s individual race was postponed a day. For over a hundred years, swimming in the famous French river has been impossible due to poor water quality: this is mainly due to the French sewers that overflow into the Seine during heavy rains. It was therefore already feared that athletes would be sick afterwards, and this fear now appears to be well-founded.
