It has been illegal to swim in the Seine River for over a century due to poor water quality and pollution, but Paris spent $1.5 billion in an effort to clean the water for the triathlon and marathon swimming events for the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, that doesn’t mean the river was completely clean.
Just days before the triathlon event was set to take place, tests indicated that the water was still not safe to swim in, resulting in the cancellation of training sessions. But the event did take place, and one of the swimmers detailed the absolutely disgusting things she saw and felt in the water while competing in the triathlon.
“While swimming under the bridge, I felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think about too much,” Jolien Vermeylen of Belgium told Flemish TV channel VTM, according to Metro.
Vermeylen finished the event in 24th place. She said that during the race, she naturally ingested quite a bit of the water and was quite concerned about what it would do to her body as a result.
“We’ll know tomorrow if I’m sick or not,” she said after the race. “It doesn’t taste like Coca-Cola or Sprite, of course.”
Clearly, she didn’t think the ambitious clean-up project was good enough.
[Metro]
