For the triathletes, this was a safety hazard, as the triathlon race was even originally postponed due to the high levels of E-coli in the river.
Despite the criticisms of the Seine's bacteria infested water, Olympic officials believed the quality was good enough for Wednesday's triathlon, which started out with a 1.5 km swim.
Swim the River Seine they said.
It'll be fun they said 😭#Triathlon #Paris2024 #Olympics https://t.co/L1f4PN95VU pic.twitter.com/yiUJTKNBBk— Priyant (@Priyant1987) July 31, 2024
All in all, Mislawchuk still was able to come in ninth place after finishing with a time of 1 hour 39 minutes 41 seconds, which is impressive, considering how ill he looked post race. Nevertheless, the Canadian wasn't satisfied with the outcome.
"I didn't come here to come top 10, but I gave it everything I had," he told reporters afterwards.
Evidently, something was in the air, as the gold medal winner of the women's triathlon event also admitted that she threw up right before jumping into the Seine river.
After claiming the first ever triathlon gold medal victory for the host country, France's Cassandre Beaugrand said, "I vomited before the start... It was nerves, it's never happened to me before, and in front of the other athletes."
With this in mind, in Mislawchuk's case, it wasn't just nerves, as he later claimed that it didn't happen only once but rather 10 times throughout the race; however, the cameras didn't catch the other times he puked, which is probably a good thing for the viewers at home.
Related: U.S. Triathlete Prepared For Swimming In The Dirty Seine River By Not Washing His Hands
