Sweden’s Victor Johansson will not race in the men’s open water 10km that is scheduled for tomorrow, August 9th. Johansson was recommended by the Swedish medical staff not to swim in the event and followed that advice.
“After we have weighed their recommendation with all the risks that exist, it felt like the best decision is to drop out. Therefore, it has now been decided that I will not swim,” Johansson said to the Swedish outlet Dagens Nyheter. “There is a lot of information that has been flying around, but what we know for sure is that people have become ill. So even though the levels (intestinal bacteria e-coli) have gone down, it didn’t feel good to start,” he continued.
Johansson was one of 32 men scheduled to swim in the race tomorrow morning. He also was the only man from Sweden to be in the race.
“After careful consideration of all the factors surrounding Victor, my recommendation is that he should not swim in the Seine as it stands now. Health is always most important,” says Swedish doctor Lykke Tamm.
Johansson is coming off of swimming in three pool events, the 400, 800, and 1500 freestyles. He finished 16th in the 800, 17th in the 1500, and 18th in the 400.
The men’s 10km race is the final event scheduled to swim in the Seine. The individual triathlon competition took place last Wednesday for both the men and women after the men’s race was postponed due to poor water quality. Days after the women’s race, Belgium’s Claire Michel was hospitalized due to E. Coli.
The Seine River had high levels of pollution leading up to the triathlon events as training sessions were canceled the Sunday and Monday before the race. Open water athletes had a training session canceled on Tuesday due to poor water quality. E. Coli levels have been high in the Seine River, including 10x too high just over a month before the Olympics began.
The women’s open water race took place this morning as scheduled. Notably, the open water 10km race is much longer than the swimming portion of the triathlon race as that was only 1.5km.
Although Johansson is out of the race, Austria’s Felix Auboeck has announced he will be in the 10km tomorrow. Auboeck swam the men’s 400 free last but did not advance to finals. He then no showed the 200 free but returned for the 800 free.
Aubeock posted to his Instagram, “Didn’t go as planned at my main events due to illness, but now I’m back and healthier than ever! 💪 Feeling extra motivated and pumped for tomorrow’s 10K race!”
Imagine your reward for getting over COVID to and swimming an open water 10k in the Seine is getting E. Coli
https://giphy.com/gifs/fail-crash-ouch-26n6G9VTGlCBni7Uk
Honest question – Do you think swimming in the Pacific off the coast of LA County in 2028 the water will be any less gross?
It will be, you should come by and check it out. There are very nice beaches down here with clean ish water.
Not honest but ignorant question
Do you live in LA County? If you do then you know that there are many open water events held in Santa Monica and the South Bay every year. North and south of the Santa Monica pier is documented to be cleaner, but there are tons of good options for LA28.
Ignorant question? Ignorant comment.
He probably didn’t want to come 18th again.
Swedish tri-athlete Tilda Mansson got sick and threw up last weekend, after her swim. However, it’s not confirmed she got sick because of the water.
Throwing up after a triathlon at that level isn’t abnormal. An E. coli infection, the primary concern from the Seine, also doesn’t show up that quickly.
Almost all the triathletes were puking when they were done…
The real question is, if it WAS E Coli, would we hear about it?
Human will is actually crazy…that’s why we’ve come so far.
Imagine willing to push yourself until you throw up and apply that same drive to sciences
The women’s triathlon took place on Wednesday July 31 and she got sick and threw up on Saturday August 3. https://www.svt.se/sport/triathlon/os-triatleten-tilda-mansson-sjuk-efter-triatlonsimningen-i-floden-seine
Lame. Back in my day we use to drink buckets of e coli as we used lead-based paint to paint our homes.
Swimming almost 2 hours in a toilet…..no thanks I’ll sit this one out
Athletes have gone soft. I use to swim in the shark infested waters of South Africa with 96 ounce steaks attached to me.
Apparently the gastro case of Clare Michel was due to a virus and not to E. Coli as initially reported. https://www.on3.com/pro/news/claire-michel-belgian-athlete-who-fell-ill-after-swimming-in-seine-reiver-says-she-contracted-virus/
Disgraceful that the organizers of Paris 2024 didn’t move the race to another location. Now, the athletes are left with the decision of “Do I risk my health to achieve a lifelong dream, or do I withdraw?”
“Athletes First” should be the motto for LA2028.
This should be the motto at every games past, present and future. Very sad that it has clearly not been applied to the present games.
Hey man, climate change agenda over everything. Our planet is more important than a bunch of finely-chiseled, near-perfect human beings (and if this is the case for them, what about the rest of us?)