A Belgian triathlete who fell ill, leading her team to withdraw from the mixed relay at the Paris Olympics, revealed that blood tests identified a virus as the cause of her sickness.
On Sunday, Belgium’s Olympic Committee announced the team’s withdrawal from Monday’s triathlon mixed relay due to Claire Michel’s inability to compete. Michel had participated in the women’s triathlon a few days earlier, which included a swim in the Seine River.
Michel was among several triathletes who became ill after swimming in the Seine, though it’s unclear whether the water was the source of the problem.
Bacteria levels in the long-polluted river have fluctuated during the Games, causing test swims ahead of the triathlon events to be canceled and the men’s triathlon to be delayed by a day. Organizers said that water quality tests conducted on the day of the individual triathlon races showed “very good” levels of fecal bacteria E. coli and enterococci.
Some news outlets reported that Michel had been sickened by E. coli and spent several days in the hospital. In an Instagram post Tuesday, she wrote that there had been “a lot of conflicting information in the media lately” and that she wanted to “clarify a few things.”
It was not E. coli that made her sick, she wrote, adding that she sought treatment at a clinic in the Olympic Village on Sunday after several days of vomiting and diarrhea “left me quite empty.”
She thanked people for get-well messages and said her “heart goes out first and foremost” to her relay teammates, “who also lost out on another chance to race.”
The Portuguese Olympic Committee said in a statement Wednesday that triathlete Vasco Vilaça had developed “symptoms compatible with a gastrointestinal infection.” He was being treated by the committee’s medical team in the Olympic Village. A second Portuguese triathlete, Melanie Santos, developed similar but less severe symptoms, the statement said.
Despite assurances from World Triathlon that bacteria levels in the river were within acceptable limits on the days when triathletes swam in the Seine, the risk of infection remained given the environmental context, the Portuguese statement said.
Daily water-quality tests measure levels of fecal bacteria, including E. coli. World Triathlon’s water safety guidelines and a 2006 European Union directive assign qualitative values to a range of E. coli levels. Under World Triathlon’s guidelines, E. coli levels up to 1,000 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters can be considered “good” and allow competitions to proceed.
World Triathlon said the bacteria levels last week, when the individual triathlon events were held, were considered “very good” and that the levels were also within acceptable limits during Monday’s triathlon mixed relay event.
Vetle Bergsvik Thorn of Norway, who competed in both the individual and relay events, also became ill. He said after Monday’s race that he had a stomach illness for about 12 hours but added, “It’s hard to say if it’s the river or just some ordinary food poisoning.”
Swedish triathlete Tilda Mansson fell ill on Saturday, three days after competing in the women’s triathlon, Swedish Olympic Committee spokesman Lars Markusson said.
Swiss officials announced Saturday that triathlete Adrien Briffod, who also had competed in the Seine on Wednesday, would not compete Monday after falling ill with a stomach infection. On Sunday, they announced that Simon Westermann, who had been tapped to replace Briffod, also had to withdraw due to a gastrointestinal infection. Westermann had not participated in any swims in the Seine.
