Triathlete Claire Michel says virus made her sick after swim in Seine, not E coli

Claire Michel

A Belgian triathlete who fell ill, causing her team to withdraw from a mixed relay event at the Paris Olympics, said blood tests showed it was a virus that made her sick. Belgium's Olympic committee announced on Sunday that it would withdraw 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. Some news outlets had reported that Michel had been sickened by E coli 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 diarrhoea "left me quite empty."

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