Australian Olympic team's plan to save athletes from illness after swimming in dirty River Seine
The water quality of the River Seine remains a source of concern less than a fortnight out from the start of the Paris Olympics, but Australian athletes set to swim in the famous waterway will be treated with medication after competing.
The medical director of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), Dr Carolyn Broderick, explained that the guts, orifices and skin of triathletes and marathon swimmers would be treated with anti-bacterial medication.
Triathletes will have to be treated twice, following the individual races and the mixed relay, and swimmers are also expected to need more than one bout of treatment given they'll likely be training in the river.
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"I feel confident in the organising committee that they won't hold an event that will jeopardise the safety of the athletes," Dr Broderick said.
Some tests of water quality have failed this month but others have passed.
The sports minister for France, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, tried to ease the concerns of athletes by taking a dip in the Seine at the weekend.
Chelsea Gubecka is among the Australian athletes set to be treated with medication after swimming in the River Seine at the Paris Olympics. Getty
If the Seine is not fit for swimming, duathlons could be held instead of triathlons, meaning athletes would only cycle and run, while marathon swimming could take place at Vaires-sur-Marne, a venue about 35 kilometres out of Paris.
Australia's chef de mission for Paris 2024, track cycling champion Anna Meares, said swimming in the river would be "the choice of the athlete".
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"It's not a point of us stepping in and saying, 'We will not let you swim'," Meares said.
"We're not going to put any athlete in an environment that risks their wellbeing.
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"That information will be given to them and that choice will ultimately be theirs.
"Try standing in front of an Olympian who's trained for their whole life, and they have the chance to swim when they're being told to and tell them no, it's not going to happen."
Swimming in the Seine has been banned since 1923 due to water pollution.
A $2.2 billion project was committed to in a bid to clean up the Seine, with organisers hoping a return to swimming in the waterway is a legacy of the Paris Games.
