Tyler Mislawchuk left it all out there – literally.
The Canadian Olympian was seen vomiting on the live TV broadcast moments after crossing the finish line in Wednesday’s triathlon event, which included a 1.5-km swim in the Seine River, a 40-km bike ride and 10-km run to finish.
Apparently, that wasn’t the only time that the Winnipeg native lost his lunch during the event.
“I didn’t come here to come top 10, but I gave it everything I had,” he told Canadian media.
“I went for it, I have no regrets … vomited 10 times.”
**WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT**
Mislawchuk finished the race in one hour 39 minutes 41 seconds, good for ninth place – an improvement over his 15th place at the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021.
Several other athletes were seen sprawled out at the finish line after completing the energy-sapping race.
The triathlon is a particularly gruelling event on the best of days – and this was not one of them.
The men’s event was pushed into the afternoon with the women competing in the morning. By the time the male competitors crossed the finish line, temperatures had risen to about 30 C in the French capital with poor air quality to boot.
The swimming portion of the event also has come with much controversy due to pollution in the Seine. The race was postponed from Tuesday due to concerns about bacteria in the water, but organizers said test samples showed “much lower” levels on Wednesday.
Up until June, E.coli levels in the river were 10 times higher than the level deemed acceptable by sports federations.
Before the Games began, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo personally took a dip in the river to belay fears of pollution. French Olympic organizers reportedly spent more than $2 billion in their efforts to clean up the Seine in advance of the Games.
In the race, Great Britain’s Alex Yee clinched a thrilling victory after working hard to close a 15-second gap on Hayden Wilde of New Zealand. Yee was the silver medallist in Tokyo three years ago.
France’s Cassandre Beaugrand took gold in a women’s race marred by several crashes in the bicycling portion of the event. Switzerland’s Julie Derron took silver and Great Britain’s Beth Potter bronze.