Rio Race Walker Packs Dacks, Gets His Shit Together To Finish Like A Champ

Earlier today, French athlete Yohann Diniz was competing in one of the most gruelling bloody events that the Olympics has to offer – the 50 kilometre racewalk – when he was caught on camera having an unfortunate accident mid-race.
If you didn’t happen to catch the event during the broadcast, then yes, you did read that right – that’s 50 kilometres, or just slightly less than the distance from the Sydney CBD to Penrith, all in one great big bloody hit. 
Around 15km into the race, cameras happened to catch the Frenchman – who also happens to be the current world record holder – from the back, and ended up with roughly three seconds’ worth of footage of brown liquid streaming down his leg.
Diniz had complained of stomach pain in the lead-up to the event, and likely wasn’t well, but was determined to compete anyway. Though he was in the lead for much of it, his gastrointestinal problems eventually got the better of him. 
A separate video shows the 38-year-old collapsing, but despite his being very obviously ill, race officials helped him up, and he went on to finish seventh (it would have been eighth, but the third-place walker was disqualified for bumping into another racer).
The video of the incident, of course, has since gone viral as hell – you can seek it out if you really want to, although we’re not going to add to the pile-on by sharing it.
As the Washington Post note, John Nunn, the sole American in the race, finished in 42nd place, so that should give you some idea of how hard Diniz pushed through to finish where he did. 
‘Runner’s trots’ is a common complaint among elite athletes, particularly distance runners, with the effect of running on the intestines, coupled with the effects of dehydration, creating an urgency to defecate.
Diniz completed the 50km race in 3:46:43, which is a better job than we could ever do, and frankly, we salute him.
Source: Washington Post / Heavy
Photo: Bryn Lennon / Getty.

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