Olympic swimmers may have found a possible cure to beating the E. coli riddled Seine river that has been one of the huge storylines at the 2024 Paris Olympics — a can of Coca-Cola waiting for them at the finish line.
Olympic swimmers may have found a possible cure to beating the E. coli-riddled Seine River that has been one of the huge storylines at the 2024 Paris Olympics — a can of Coca-Cola.
Several world-class athletes swear that the sugary soda has helped them stave off bacteria and any infection they could get from competing in the open waters.
“There’s no harm in drinking a Coke after a race,” New Zealand’s Ainsley Thorpe told the Wall Street Journal after the Women’s Triathlon last week. “If you Google it, it says it can help.”
Doctors say there is no medical backing to Coke being a gastroenterological cure-all, but many athletes are still taking advice from the professionals around them in Paris.
“The myth of Coca-Cola is true,” Australian marathon swimmer Moesha Johnson said. “We will often have a Coca-Cola afterwards just to try to flush out anything inside of us.”
The Olympians have also been taking cocktails of probiotics before and after their races to combat the polluted river in Paris.
“I took pro-biotics, I drank my Yakult, I couldn’t do more,” Beligium triathlete Jolien Vermeylen said after her race on July 31. “I had the idea of not drinking water, but yes, it failed.”
Ironically enough, Vermeylen said the Seine “doesn’t taste like Coca-Cola or Sprite, of course.
