2024 Olympics: Ill Belgian triathlete forces her team to withdraw from mixed relay, four days after her swim in the Seine
The Belgian triathlon team will not start the mixed relay event on Monday 5 August. The Belgian team does not have “reserve” to replace Claire Michel, “unfortunately ill”constrained to “drop out of contest”affirm in a joint press release the Belgian Olympic Committee (COIB) and the Belgian Triathlon Federation.
Both institutions say they hope “that lessons will be learned for the next triathlon competitions at the Olympic Games”without specifying whether the triathlete was ill following her participation in the women’s triathlon last Wednesday, the swimming portion of which took place in the Seine. According to the Olympic Organizing Committee (OCOG),The water of the Seine was “very good” quality on the bacteriological level, last Wednesday. Claire Michel had completed the test in 38th placeindividually.
The quality of the water in the Parisian river has been a question mark since the start of the Games. On Saturday and Sunday, Mixed relay training has been cancelleddue to storms upstream of the river. The organizers have not yet provided the latest data on the level of bacteria, particularly E.coli, present in the water. “We hope to be able to organize the competition tomorrow (Monday), and we will make the decision as planned tomorrow morning.”declared Anne Descamps, spokesperson for the Cojo, on Sunday.
On two occasions, the organizers were forced to cancel training in the Seine, before postponing the men’s event by one day. The women’s and men’s events finally took place on Wednesday, July 31.
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