Belgian Triathlon Team Has To Withdraw Over A Team Member's Health. Is Disgusting Seine To Blame?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the Summer Olympics, it’s that I’m never going to swim in the Seine River.

Calling the water quality of this river "nasty" is an insult to the word nasty. The French spent $1.5 billion trying to make this water somewhat swimable, and it still didn’t do anything. In fact, the start of the triathlon events at these Olympic Games had to be delayed because of dangerous levels of E. Coli.

The Seine makes Boston’s rivers - forever immortalized in a song literally called "Dirty Water" - look sparkling clean.

So yeah, the river sucks, plain and simple. In fact, one Canadian triathlete puked his guts out Wednesday after emerging from the Seine.

We’re not entirely sure if the puking was caused by swimming in the Seine, but it's nonetheless a bad look. And this is not the only athlete who has had post-Seine health problems.

The Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee announced Sunday afternoon that it will have to withdraw its mixed relay triathlon team after Claire Michel fell sick. Michel had competed in the women’s triathlon Wednesday, and just a few days after swimming in the Seine (that would be a great music album name, wouldn’t it?), she’s not feeling so great.

Claire Michel of Belgium (seen here in 2017) had to withdraw from further triathlon events because she felt sick. (Photo by Michael Campanella/Getty Images for WTS)

Again, there have been other athletes who swam in the Seine and fell ill after, but couldn’t confidently blame their sickness on the water conditions. Even so, this is getting suspicious.

I get that these men and women have to do this in order to potentially win a medal at the Olympics. But if this river can’t be made clean enough after spending over a billion dollars on restoring it, no one should ever set foot in that river again.