Olympics Are Here

You have to deal with a lot of things in order to become an Olympic medalist. Training (some say it takes 10 years and 10,000 hours to reach Olympic standards), you must be able to avoid serious injuries, eat well, take care of your body, outdo essentially every other athlete in your sport in the world and, for some… apparently E. Coli too.

Paris is ready to hold the summer olympics later this month, but apparently the Seine River isn’t. The Seine River is supposed to host various open-water swimming events. The problem? There are still dangerous levels of E. Coli in its water. 

E. Coli, as we’re sure you’re aware, can cause some serious digestive issues if ingested. Along with UTI’s, pneumonia and sepsis. Now imagine swimming in that water, after years of training to finally be able to reach and compete in the Olympics. And that’s what you’ll have to jump into. 

Not to mention the fact that swimming in the river has been illegal since 1923. For over 100 years. And now, suddenly, this seems like a good idea. For the Olympics, nonetheless. 

Without getting bogged down in the data, the E. Coli levels are twice as high as they’d need to be for the river to be considered “good water quality.” So there’s still plenty of work to be done. Paris has already spent $1.5 billion in an attempt to clean up the river’s water. 

A lot of kids grow up holding their noses when they jump into water. Or taking a deep breath, before submerging under water, cheeks filled with air, afraid to open their mouths. Those types of swimmers might fare best later this month in Paris…