Olympian not washing hands after toilet to prepare for E. coli exposure in River Seine

Olympic Games organisers were forced to postpone the men's triathlon event at the last minute on Tuesday morning due to the poor water quality in Paris' River Seine

USA triathlete Seth Rider has revealed that he's stopped washing his hands after using the toilet to help build up his tolerance against diseases such as E. coli.

The men's individual triathlon race at this year's Games was postponed on Tuesday due to the water quality in Paris' River Seine. Although the event is now set to take place on Wednesday, athletes will still be at risk of contracting illness.

Olympian Rider is therefore employing some grubby tactics in preparation for the race, with heavy rain during the opening ceremony on Friday impacting the quality of water in the Seine. "We know that there's going to be some E. coli exposure, so I just try to increase my E. coli threshold by exposing myself to a bit of E. coli in day-to-day life," Rider, 27, explained.

"And it's actually backed by science. Proven methods. Just little things throughout your day, like not washing your hands after you go to the bathroom."

Rider's fellow triathletes have been left 'angry and disappointed' with the water in Paris, as Benjamin Maze - technical director of the French triathlon federation - revealed following the postponement. "The events were supposed to take place at 8am, so when we heard the news, they were already at breakfast eating some rice," Maze said.

"Well, the pre-race meal as usual. In this kind of situation, you have to accept your emotions. Once again, this disappointment, this anger, and then to leave in a resilient mood, to leave in a much more positive mood.

"In any case, that's what we encouraged them to do." However, he conceded that when doing outdoor events there are factors that cannot be controlled. "They know that they are doing an outdoor sport, even more so in triathlon. We knew that we had had problems with water pollution in recent days."

To add to the growing frustration among triathletes, organisers are still unable to guarantee that the men's and women's triathlons will take place on Wednesday morning. World Triathlon president Marisol Casado has admitted to BBC Sport there's currently a 60 per cent chance that both races will go ahead.

"We really want this to happen," Casado, who added that organisers thought the improvement in water quality would be "faster than it was." She also said: "We were shocked this morning when we saw that it was not as fast as we wanted."

The women's race is due to begin at 7am UK time before the men's event is scheduled to take place at 9:45am. Final tests of the water will be taken at 2:30am.

Follow all the action on day 4 of the Paris Olympics with Mirror Sport's live blog

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