Cautious all-clear from Kiel: European 49er champion Erik Heil, who contracted a serious bacterial infection as a result of his participation in the test regatta in Rio de Janeiro, is on the road to recovery. The bronze medallist of the dress rehearsal told YACHT online in a telephone call on Tuesday afternoon. The athlete, who returned to his home in Kiel on Monday evening, is still receiving medical treatment, but was able to report that several areas of inflammation had healed. "Only the hole in my leg is still deep. The drainage will have to stay in for a while. It will take some time," said Heil, who continues to change his towels, bed linen and other items of daily use at home as a precautionary measure and therefore follows certain hygiene rules. Heil is also being looked after by his neighbour and former teammate in the national team: laser sailor Malte Kamrath, currently working as a doctor in his practical year at Kiel Hospital, regularly checks on Heil, who would like to get back on the water next week if the doctors give him the green light.
Earlier on Monday, the detailed laboratory results of Heil's blood tests had once again confirmed that the wound infections on his legs and hips were caused by multi-resistant bacteria (MRSA). Doctors and athletes continue to assume that Heil most likely contracted the infection in the particularly contaminated harbour of the Marina da Gloria or - less likely in their view - on the Olympic inland courses in Guanabara Bay. "Where else should I have got these infections?" says Heil, "they started after the first week and a half of sailing in Rio de Janeiro." In Heil's case, the bacteria detected contained an enzyme additive that allows the bacteria to penetrate deeper into the skin, possibly even enabling them to penetrate the skin without any previous injury.
In sporting terms, Heil remains torn in his view of the controversial Olympic area after the illness and the excitement of the past few days. "For us as a team, for Thomas and me, Rio remains a good spot. The three inland courses are the place where we can get closest to 49er world champion Peter Burling. If we only sailed on the outer courses, he could utilise his great speed potential much better there." Despite his illness, Heil is not in favour of moving the Olympic venue to Buzios, for example. He says: "We simply have to prepare ourselves very well for this Olympic area, perhaps start from the harbour in fishing trousers and then take them off on the course in order to minimise possible contact with bacteria. The basic problem is that you get bacteria on your neoprene every day in the harbour, which is particularly contaminated by hospital wastewater. This neoprene then simply lies on the skin for hours, especially when there is little wind or longer delays at the start. This increases the chance of a bacterial infection. We have to prevent this."
Heil says his team has not had a problem on the courses in Guanabara Bay in the past three years. "Of course, the bacteria could also come from the bay, but I think the harbour is much more likely to be the main source. We can prevent this risk. We continue to assume that Olympic medals will be sailed there in 2016," said Heil, "and we will prepare for that. At the same time, we can only keep appealing to the organisers to do everything in their power to clean the waters as well as possible."
Until then, Heil and many other athletes want to further expand their protective measures against the invisible danger in the Olympic area. It is conceivable that the wetsuits will be cleaned, disinfected and even replaced very regularly. The thorough disinfection of all body orifices after a day's sailing, as well as regular showering with fresh water on board the coach boats and on land, should already be standard practice in many teams. Cleaning sailing clothing with disinfectant detergent is also standard practice. According to Heil, the wetsuits widely used in triathlon with their smooth and waterproof surfaces may also be of interest.
In sporting terms, the second and perhaps already decisive regatta of the three-part national Olympic qualification is on the programme for Heil and his co-skipper Thomas Plößel in the 49er World Championship reef off Buenos Aires in mid-November. At the start, Heil's younger team and sparring partners Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme initially took the lead in the German-German duel for the 49er Olympic ticket with 25:13 points with their surprising European Championship title. "We have to put on a great World Championship," says Heil realistically about his team's chances.
Because the points system for the national Olympic qualifiers rewards titles and medals at world and European championships, Heil and Plößel have set themselves the goal of a podium finish in order to equalise the lead of their rivals as far as possible. "We're in good spirits," says Heil, "a fifth place is realistic, a second would be absolutely top class." At the same time, the German teams have a joint task to solve in Argentina and another decisive hurdle to overcome, as the German 49er national starting place is not yet secured due to the botched 2014 World Championship off Santander. One of the two Sailing Team Germany teams will have to fight for this place in November in order for the duel for the Olympic ticket to continue to make sense. Despite the double burden, Heil doesn't expect the two German 49er men's teams to be lurking and duelling early on: "That makes little sense. It's not the time for that yet."
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
