Olympic Triathlete who swam in the Seine says that she 'felt and saw things she didn't want to think about'
After spending £1.18 billion on cleaning up the heavily polluted River Seine, France were hoping to avoid any controversy at this year's Olympic Games.
It's safe to say that has not happened.
Before the iconic sporting event even kicked off, locals were threatening to take a s**t in the river as a demonstration to the funds being spent on it, all while sharing the hashtag #JeChieDansLaSeine.
Incase you don't remember your GCSE French, that roughly translates to 'I Poo In The Seine' in English.
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This hasn't stopped the Seine being used in Paris for the Olympic Games this year, despite the men’s triathlon being postponed by a day due to 'health reasons'.
And when it finally kicked off on Wednesday morning (31 July), Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk, 29, vomited in the river after the race.
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.”
Meanwhile, Belgian Triathlete Jolien Vermeylen, who competed in this year's race, has opened up on her grim experience when swimming in the river.
She told 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!"
Though the World Triathlon said in a statement that they believe to have undergone appropriate measures to ensure athlete safety is adhered to.
"Paris 2024 and World Triathlon reiterate that their priority is the health of the athletes," they said.
"The tests carried out in the Seine today revealed water quality levels that did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held.
"Unfortunately, meteorological events beyond our control, such as the rain which fell over Paris on 26 and 27 July, can alter water quality and compel us to reschedule the event for health reasons.
"Despite the improvement on the water quality levels in the last hours, the readings at some points of the swim course are still above the acceptable limits."
LADbible has contacted the World Triathlon for comment.
The most bizarre, discontinued Olympic sports
Painting
Back in the day, the Olympics dished out medals for art too, with events including painting and sculpture, as well as music, architecture and even literature.
Making its debut all the way back at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm and continuing until the 1948 London games, juries awarded competitors a total of 151 medals for artistic projects inspired by sport.
Tug of War
Bet you didn't think this playground classic was once part of the Olympics, did you?
Well, it turns out not only was the sport popular, but it stirred up a lot of drama too - with accusations of foul play flying around at the 1908 Olympics in London, with Team USA accusing Team GB of cheating due to their 'illegal' heavy footwear.
A mainstay for around five Olympic games from 1900 to 1920, Tug of War enthusiasts have even campaigned for organisers to reintroduce the retired sport back into the Games.
Hot Air Balloon Racing
Launching at the 1900 Olympics, hot air balloon drivers would compete in races scoring how far they could travel, altitude reached, ability to land within the correct coordinates and - to top it all off - who got the best photo from the balloon.
The sport ended up being canned after a ban on motorised sports was brought in.
Live Pigeon Shooting
Also making its debut at the 1900 Olympics, the event was pretty self explanatory - a load of pigeons were released into the air as the competitor tried to shoot as many as possible. Grim.
The event only appeared at the Games once, and all in all, it's estimated that Olympic hopefuls killed around 300 pigeons.
Pistol Duelling
It doesn't take much guessing as to why this event was scrapped, but back in 1906, people clearly didn't bat an eyelid at competitors waving pistols around and shooting at each other.
It began with competitors shooting at dummies, but two years later organisers decided to shake things up and have them shoot at each other with wax bullets. Ouch.
1908 would be the last time the sport was included in the Olympics, so I'm guessing they quickly realised it was a bad idea - wax bullets or not.
Anish Vij