Swimming in untested waters

CNSNews reports that retired USA open water star and Olympian Kalyn Keller is devastated by news that the International Olympic Committee had picked Rio de Janeiro as host city for the 2016 summer Olympic Games.

Medical experts cannot confirm Kalyn Keller’s belief that her diagnosis of Crohn’s disease is connected to her swimming in the waters off the coast of Brazil in the 2007 Pan American Games. “It was kind of just like everything happening again,” Keller, 24, told CNSNews.com as she fought back tears. “I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

The bodies of water Olympic athletes like Keller swim in for open water competitions around the globe are not tested according to Lindsay Mintenko, national team managing director for USA Swimming.

Mintenko told CNSNews.com that there are no rules mandating the testing of open water, which would be established by FINA, the organization that regulates Olympic and Olympic-related swimming events.

Mintenko said USA Swimming is lobbying for that to change, although FINA only reviews its regulations every four years and no water-testing regulation for open water competitions were put into place during the latest session.

“It didn’t pass this year,” Mintenko said, adding that efforts to gain passage continue.

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