Some athletes who have to jump into the iconic waters of the Seine River for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, aren’t worried about contamination as long as they can have Coca-Cola afterwards.
You read that right – not a shot of penicillin, just a Coke.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Ainsley Thorpe and Nicole van der Kaay met New Zealand’s team doctor. They were greeted with open bottles of the soft drink.
“If you Google it, it says it can help,” said Thorpe.
Before we get into why the doctor recommended a drink often criticized for its high sugar content, let’s tackle why athletes were concerned about bacteria in the water. Per the Associated Press, swimming has been mostly off-limits in the Seine for more than a century.
“Paris, like many old cities around the world, has a combined sewer system, which means that the city’s wastewater and stormwater flow through the same pipes,” the outlet explained. “With heavy or prolonged periods of rain, the pipes can get overwhelmed and untreated wastewater flows into the river instead of to a treatment plant.”
Cities that are not as old as Paris can also have a hard time keeping their rivers clean. For example, that time 20 years ago that a Dave Matthews Band tour bus dumped its septic tank out all over people on a Chicago River tour boat. Audacy has the details on that incident here.
In addition to human waste, rodents can also end up in the Seine when rains are heavy, both potentially carrying bacteria, viruses and parasites. To make the Seine Olympics-ready, Paris actually invested the equivalent of $1.5 billion into cleaning it up and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo even swam in it herself to prove its safety to the Olympic athletes.
Still, decades of pollution are tricky to clean.
Although POLTICO reported that the Seine’s pollution levels were “well below harmful limits when athletes dove in for the Olympic triathlon,” based on testing from earlier this month, the Independent reported that there have also been delays stemming from concerns about the water quality. It also said Belgium “pulled its team from the mixed relay event after an athlete who previously swam in the river got sick,” and that “a swimmer for Switzerland also missed the competition due to illness.”
“European safety standards state that waters with E-coli concentration levels above 1000 colony-forming units (cfu) per 100 milliliters of water are considered unsafe for swimming,” said POLITICO.
As for Coke as a way to flush out toxins – there is research indicating that the popular soft drink can kill some pathogens.
“It was found that cola has a strong antibacterial effect on Bacillus cereus, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli O: 157 H: 7, Salmonella enteritidis, Yersinia enterocolitica bacteria,” said a 2015 study published in the Cumhuriyet Science Journal.
“The myth of Coca-Cola is true,” Moesha Johnson of Team Australia said, according to the Independent. “We will often have a Coca-Cola afterward just to try to flush out anything inside of us.”
Some people even swear by the cola – an American creation that has been in production since 1886 and became known around the globe during World War II – as a cleaning product. In 2018, CNET published an article about 10 things it said could be cleaned with Coca-Cola, including toilet bowls and rusty bolts.
However, the Atlanta, Ga.-based company itself recommends enjoying Cokes for the taste.
“Rumor-mongers have claimed that Coca‑Cola, due to its acidic nature, can be used to clean toilets and corroded car batteries, loosen rusted bolts and remove rust spots from car bumpers, get rid of grease from clothing and clean road haze from windshields,” it said. “It’s true there is a small amount of edible acid present in Coca‑Cola – just as there is in many foods and drinks. And it’s quite possible that this edible acid could do the things the rumor-mongers claim. But we wouldn’t recommend using it for any of these purposes. Just stick to the regular cleaning products…”