An Olympic athlete has slammed the organisers after being made to swim in the River Seine.
On Wednesday morning, the women’s triathlon event finally took place after days of uncertainty and postponement.
Earlier in the week, it was feared that the event could be axed due to the pollution in the River Seine.
Eventually, the event was cleared to go ahead and the gold medal was won by France's Cassandre Beaugrand, with the silver going to Switzerland’s Julie Derron and Team GB’s Beth Potter winning bronze.
Speaking after the race, Belgian athlete Jolien Vermeylen revealed what it was really like to swim in the River Seine.
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She said to VTW: "I drank a lot of water, so we’ll know tomorrow if I’m sick or not. It doesn’t taste like Coca-Cola or Sprite, of course. While swimming under the bridge, I felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think about too much.
“The Seine has been dirty for a hundred years, so they can’t say that the safety of the athletes is a priority. That’s bulls**t!”
Vermeylen added: “If the race hadn’t taken place, it would have been a disgrace for the organisation, for Paris, for France. It was now or never, and they couldn’t cancel the race completely either.
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“Now they just have to hope that there won’t be too many sick athletes. I took pro-biotics, I drank my Yakult, I couldn’t do more.”
Meanwhile, the men’s race was won by Team GB’s Alex Yee, who produced a monumental comeback in the latter stages to overhaul New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde. The Bronze medal went to France’s Leo Begere.
After the race finished, the camera caught Canada's Tyler Mislawchuk vomiting after crossing the finish line in ninth place.
Mislawchuk told Canadian media: “I didn’t come here to come top 10 but I gave it everything I had. I went for it, I have no regrets - vomited 10 times.”
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The LADbible Group has contacted the World Triathlon for comment.
Topics: Olympics
Marcus Chan