Yum – Athletes in next year’s Summer Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an Associated Press investigation has found.

An AP analysis of water quality revealed dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues — results that alarmed international experts and dismayed competitors training in Rio, some of whom have already fallen ill with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea.

It is the first independent comprehensive testing for both viruses and bacteria at the Olympic sites.

Brazilian officials have assured that the water will be safe for the Olympic athletes and the medical director of the International Olympic Committee said all was on track for providing safe competing venues. But neither the government nor the IOC tests for viruses, relying on bacteria testing only.

Extreme water pollution is common in Brazil, where the majority of sewage is not treated. Raw waste runs through open-air ditches to streams and rivers that feed the Olympic water sites.

As a result, Olympic athletes are almost certain to come into contact with disease-causing viruses that in some tests measured up to 1.7 million times the level of what would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach.

Of all things an Olympic athlete would want to swim through, I have to imagine human sewage is very low on the list. It might not even be on the list. I guess this is the risk you take putting the Olympics in Brazil, but this is obscene. Also. maybe test the waters and get this information out to the public BEFORE you choose where the Olympics are being held. Now you have people going there to train and getting sick because they’re swimming through human shit. The most shocking stat comes at the end, as some waters that were tested were up to 1.7 million times the level of hazardous conditions. 1.7 million! That’s an insane number no matter what you’re testing for, but when the tests include human feces, it’s downright nasty. I don’t know what the remedy for this is, and I know there isn’t one that’s going to make these waters safe by next year, so Mr. Olympic has some serious decisions to make.

– Ryan