RIO DE JANEIRO—Thirteen rowers on the 40-member U.S. team came down with stomach illness at the World Junior Rowing Championships—a trial run for next summer’s Olympics—and the team doctor said she suspected it was due to pollution in the lake where the competition took place.
The event took place amid rising concerns about the water quality at venues for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, now less than a year away.
The Americans were by far the hardest hit at the regatta that concluded last weekend, with reports of vomiting and diarrhea. Other teams in the competition reported some illnesses, according to World Rowing, the sport’s governing body, but those were about as expected at an event that featured more than 500 young rowers.
On July 30, The Associated Press published an independent analysis of water quality that showed high levels of viruses and, in some cases, bacteria from human sewage in all of Rio’s Olympic and Paralympic water venues, including Rodrigo de Freitas Lake, where the rowing competition took place.
U.S. coach Susan Francia, a two-time Olympic gold-medal rower, said in an interview with the AP that 13 athletes and four staff members—including herself—suffered various gastrointestinal symptoms during the team’s two weeks of training in Rio.
Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, the U.S. team physician, said athletes from several other countries stayed in the same hotel as the Americans, but did not seem to get as sick as her rowers.
