Tyler Mislawchuk believes it was the heat – and not pollution in the River Seine – that made him vomit ‘ten times’ after the men’s triathlon at the Paris Olympics.
Alex Yee staged an incredible late comeback to seal Team GB’s fifth gold medal of the Games in Wednesday’s compelling triathlon.
However, the main talking point in the build-up to the spectacle had been the poor water quality in the French capital, with practice sessions on Sunday and Monday having to be scrapped as a result of high traces of E. Coli.
And while organisers had spent a total of £1.2 billion in a desperate attempt to clean up the river for its original start time on Tuesday morning, the event had to be postponed for 24 hours to ensure the safety of the competitors.
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Shortly after Yee stormed home to clinch gold, TV cameras captured Canada’s Mislawchuk being violently sick at the finish line, raising further doubts of pollution levels in the Seine.
But speaking to Triathlon Magazine Canada, Mislawchuk insisted it was the high temperatures in the final laps of the 10km run that made him so ill after finishing ninth, 52 seconds behind Yee.
‘For me, whether I was fourth or 55th it doesn’t really matter. I tried to win a medal and I went out there and was basically in third place with the two French guys for five and a half or 6 km,’ Mislawchuk said.
‘At my last Olympics there was the injury and with all the stuff that happened there was a lot of “what ifs”.
‘I have no “what ifs” on the day, I went for it, it was absolutely everything.
‘I vomited ten times after the race … it got hot in the last laps.’
In a separate interview with The Canadian Press, the 29-year-old brushed off concerns over the water quality in the Seine and said the strong currents and ‘scolding’ heat were his main issues.
‘The race was strange. It was crazy currents which was difficult to deal with and then wet on the bike course from rain in the morning,’ he explained.
‘It was then just scolding hot on the run so just all the elements, all the challenges that you can imagine.
‘But that’s triathlon. Triathlon is in all the venues across the world, different courses, and so I think it comes down to the famous saying, “Adapt or die”, and that’s what you have to do in this kind of racing.’
Mislawchuk added: ‘We raced here last year in the test event and I had no issues. Obviously, I’m not a doctor, I’m not a water specialist, and so, for me, whatever I was reading in the news didn’t really matter.
‘It was like, “I’m here to race and that’s what my job is”. I’m lucky to call it a job. I’m here to race and perform.
‘Any extra energy wasted thinking about whatever… even when the race got cancelled, I told myself, “I’ve got to use this to my advantage”, because I typically train big hours and so I thought maybe it was just an extra day for me to recover, you know.’
Mislawchuk felt like he was swimming in ‘slow motion’ due the ferocious currents in the Seine.
‘The current for sure was the biggest thing. People talk about the water quality but the current was so strong,’ he continued.
‘We went out in almost three minutes and came back in nine minutes. It felt like you’re swimming in a movie with slow motion and you’re stuck in that bad dream.’
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