She has been hospitalized with an IV drip after competing in unsanitary water.
Tilda Månsson is sending her big brother and coach to test the waters in Seine due to the risk of getting sick before her triathlon competition – and criticizes the Olympic organizers.
They're gambling with athletes, she says.
On Sunday and Monday, Olympic triathletes will test the one and a half kilometer long swimming stretch in the Seine River in Paris.
Championship debutant Tilda Månsson will not do it. She does not want to test the waters and risk getting sick due to poor water quality.
I think generally that not many will choose to jump in the days before. Many will probably let their coaches or team managers jump in instead and swim for them. That's what we've planned, she says.
The 20-year-old's coach is her approximately one and a half years older brother Hampus. He is the one who will have to take the plunge to give his little sister an idea of the course. Tilda Månsson is critical of the Olympic organizers' decision to hold the swimming – which starts the triathlon, followed by cycling and running – in a polluted city river like the Seine.
"Smelled like sewage"
I feel it's a bit stupidly thought out. They're really gambling with athletes, she says.
Månsson has already gotten sick once in connection with swimming in a World Championship competition in Hong Kong. Before that competition, the organizers said the water quality was okay.
Everyone who swam got sick. Many had tested themselves and there was E. coli in the water we had swum in. You could tell when we stood by the water that it smelled like sewage, she says and continues:
I flew home directly after and the day after I got really, really sick and was hospitalized at Danderyd Hospital with an IV drip. I threw up everything in my body.
Before the Summer Games, which begin this week, several high-ranking officials – including France's Sports Minister, the Mayor of Paris, and the Olympic Chief – have taken a dip in the Seine to prove that the water is not unsanitary. No one has reported getting sick.
The Swede: "A cannonball idea"
If tests show that the water quality is not good enough before the swimming competitions in Seine, the Paris Olympics' plan B is to postpone the competitions, or in the case of the marathon swimming, move them to the Marne River east of Paris, according to AP.
Sweden's marathon swimmer Victor Johansson has no problem with the competition venue.
It's going to be fun. I'm glad they have a plan B. Of course, it's a cannonball idea to swim in the river. But it shouldn't be at the expense of one's health, he says.
Tilda Månsson, triathlon, Wednesday July 31 (08.00).
Victor Johansson, swimming, marathon, Friday August 9 (07.30).
