Olympic swimmers try to ‘flush away’ Seine bacteria by drinking Coca-Cola

Some Olympic swimmers drink cola as a surprising part of their training program.

The Seine, the site of several track and field events during the Paris Games, has raised concerns for months about its water quality, namely E. coli and fecal matter, despite the French city spending $1.5 billion to rid the river of pollution. The marathon swimming test, meant to give Olympians a taste of the marathon course, was canceled Tuesday by World Aquatics, the Associated Press reported.

To reduce the risk of bacterial infections, some athletes have taken to drinking Coca-Cola after swimming in the river. “There’s no harm in drinking a Coke after a race,” New Zealand triathlete Ainsley Thorp told The Wall Street Journal. “If you Google it, it says it can help.”

“We often have a Coca-Cola afterwards to flush out everything that’s inside us,” said Australian swimmer Moesha Johnson. “I just do what the professionals around me tell me.”

However, Dr. Maria Abreu, president of the American Gastroenterological Association, was somewhat skeptical about the popular beverage brand’s cleansing powers. Since a healthy gut is more acidic than Coca-Cola, Abreu said, it’s unlikely the soda would be able to eliminate unwanted bacteria. “These are young, athletic people,” the doctor told PEOPLE. “They’re going to be healthy people whose stomach acid is nice and robust.”

While Coca-Cola’s germ-killing abilities are still somewhat up for debate, the soda can be useful for a post-competition sugar spike. “My coach advised me to (drink Coca-Cola) to restore those glycogen levels immediately,” said American swimmer Katie Grimes.