Olympic Swimmer Drugged, Bruised Up After Bagging Bronze At World Championships

A Canadian Olympic Swimmer made public on Thursday that she was drugged and bruised during the the World Aquatic Championships in Budapest in June, with authorities continuing their investigation on the incident.

Mary-Sophie Harvey wrote on Instagram about the ordeal, saying that the incident happened as she was celebrating in Budapest after winning a bronze medal in a freestyle relay during the World Aquatic Championships, according to the New York Post.

She says that she was partying with friends and teammates when she lost hours of time until she woke up the next morning with her team manager and her doctor at her bedside, with different bruises all around her body, CNN reported.

“I’ve never felt more ashamed,” she said on Instagram.

Harvey then spoke about the loss that she feels in her body after the incident and how she feels alienated from it due to the bruises and the loss of control that the drugging had forced upon her, the Guardian reported.

“It felt like the body I was in, wasn’t mine [it still feels this way]. I got home and found a dozen bruises on my body,” Harvey wrote. “Some of my friends told me afterwards that they had to carry me while I was unconscious and it probably explained why.”

Harvey and her team reported the drugging incident to the international governing body for swimming, FINA, after debating whether or not to keep the incident private. The body has launched an investigation into the incident while commenting that the claims that Harvey made were “distressing.”

“Sadly, these events happen more than we think it does. There’s been a dangerous increasing number of cases reported throughout the years, but it is still not being talked about enough,” she said.

“I thought I was safe, that it would never happen to me, especially while being surrounded by friends. But it did.”

In the end, despite the damage that the incident had done to her body and psyche, Harvey has chosen to move forward and focus on the upcoming Commonwealth Games, where she has been signed up to compete in.

“I’m still scared to think about the unknowns of that night,” she said. “I’m still, in a way, ashamed of what happened, and I think I always will be… But I won’t let this event define me.”