A 27-year-old triathlete, Kristian Blummenfelt, had just won an Olympic gold medal, vomited everywhere and got taken away in a wheelchair.
The three-pronged event, which features a 1.5-kilometer swim, a 40-kilometer cycle and a 10-kilometer run, had to be brought forward to prevent exhaustion at the peak heat at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
A fail of Olympic proportions plagued the swimming section of the triathlon when a media boat blocked many competitors with a safe dive into the water and so half of the field had to return to dry land after a very strange false start.
The triathletes then had to endure near-unbearable exhaustion from the heat as they ran as fast and as hard as they could for the finish line.
Alex Yee, from Great Britain, led the way for a long while during the final event, the run, yet was overtaken by Blummenfelt who pipped the Brit by 11 seconds.
With a pain-stricken face, Blummenfelt grabbed hold of the finishing tape, collapsed to the floor, vomited and had to be helped back to his feet. Blummenfelt was then taken away on a wheelchair.
The heat was so fierce that Blummenfelt’s all-white kit was drenched through with sweat to the point that it became see-through.
Regardless of this fact, he actually said that he would have preferred it hotter because the Norwegian had been training in even harder conditions.
Blummenfelt said that, “Our team is world-leading for heat preparation so we were a bit disappointed it was not as warm as we were hoping for. I’m from Bergen where for two-thirds of the year it’s windy, rainy, and 10 degrees. But that just shows the strength of the team around us in getting that preparation”.
Blummenfelt continued: “I’ve been thinking about this race for so many years. I was on holiday here many years ago and thought to myself: ‘Okay, your goal is to win an Olympic gold medal here in 2020. I knew I couldn’t outkick them on the carpet [finishing straight] but I could use my engine [before the home straight] and really bring it home.”
Sources: Business Insider
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