Loading

Organisers spent more than a billion dollars to clean up the Seine.

Heading west towards the Eiffel Tower was a breeze for swimmers as they rode the current. Back the other way, it was a war of attrition as athletes waded through the dirtiest parts of the river closest to the edge to avoid feeling like they were swimming on the spot.

Johnson, who hails from the northern NSW suburb of Tweed Heads and now lives in Germany, celebrated her silver medal with a can of Coca-Cola.

Why? A number of swimmers in Paris believe a can of coke can flush out unwanted bacteria, in light of concerns about water quality in the Seine.

Johnson was unperturbed by the water quality or brown colour of the river but admitted there were unexpected obstacles to overcome.

“If Coca-Cola is listening, this is your cue. Yes, I’ve had a Coca-Cola, but I’ll go home and have some antibiotics as well,” Johnson said.

“I’ve tasted worse water, to be honest. It’s not about what the water looks like. I’ve swum in some really brown water and it’s been really good quality. It’s just about what the data shows us. It’s always going to be dramatic [in the media].

“We all got quite beaten up. One of the boats had plants on it with spikes on it, so we’ve got scratches on us.

“We were actually battling with the course a lot today. The hardest part was if you moved over a metre to try and pass someone, the current was just that much more dramatic. So you probably saw us hugging the edge of the wall. I hit the wall a few times unintentionally.”

After four gold medals for Australia on Wednesday in Paris, Johnson almost made it a fifth inside 17 hours.

If Johnson had won gold, Australia would have drawn level with the USA on the swimming medal tally with eight golds apiece.

Open water events only came onto the Olympic program in 2008.

Loading

The USA has won every Olympic swimming medal tally since 1956, except in 1980 when it boycotted the Moscow Games.

Aussies Nick Sloman and Kyle Lee are in action in the men’s 10km race on Friday in what is the Dolphins’ final chance to draw level with their American rivals.

“This is going to take a while to sink in,” Johnson said.