Israeli kayaking champion Yasmin Feingold, 20, was in intensive care after overturning her boat in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon River.
The Yarkon has been severely polluted for many years, despite efforts to clean it up.
In 1997 four members of the Australia’s Maccabiah Games team were killed and 60 injured when a temporary pedestrian bridge collapsed over the Yarkon and they swallowed toxic chemicals.
Feingold was rushed to the city’s Ichilov Hospital, where she is out of danger.