Olympic triathlon athlete says virus made her sick after swim in Seine River

PARIS, France — A Belgian triathlete who fell ill, causing her team to withdraw from mixed relay event at the Paris Olympics, said blood tests showed it was a virus that made her sick.

Belgium’s Olympic committee announced Sunday that it would withdraw its team from Monday's triathlon mixed relay because Claire Michel was unable to compete. Michel had competed a few days earlier in the women’s triathlon, which included a swim in the Seine River.

Bacteria levels in the long-polluted river have been in flux 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 had said that water quality tests done the day of the individual triathlon races showed “very good” levels of fecal bacteria E. coli and enterococci.

Ahead of the Games, Paris organizers expressed confidence that the river would be clean enough to swim in, and did not prepare a backup venue. 

Some news outlets had reported that Michel had been sickened by the  E. coli virus 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.”