Rain in Paris on Friday and Saturday polluted the River Seine for hours, forcing organisers to cancel the triathlon training scheduled for Sunday morning on the river, but they remain “confident” that the events will go ahead on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The triathlon is the first Olympic event to be held on the Seine, before open water swimming in the second week of the Paris Olympics.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday local time, the Olympic Organizing Committee and the International Triathlon Union, as well as local authorities, took a “joint decision to cancel the swimming part of the triathlon training” scheduled for Sunday, because “the water levels” they indicated in a press release did not provide sufficient guarantees.
On Saturday afternoon, organizers had already warned that the previous day's deluge, which amounted to about 16 millimeters of water, was likely to deteriorate water quality.
“Athlete's Health”
They did not specify on Sunday the level of E. coli and enterococci bacteria that should be below a certain limit, but they highlighted the “priority of athlete health.”
Before swimming on Tuesday and Wednesday, triathletes have the opportunity to “get to know” the river even if some decide to continue training in the pool, in particular in the legendary Georges Valéry pool in eastern Paris where athletes have already swum since the 1924 Olympic Games.
Organisers said the Sunday morning training “running and cycling events” “will go ahead as planned”.
Ten days after Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo promised Parisians they could swim in the river next summer, triathletes will not be able to test the Seine on Sunday morning.
confident in the race
Due to heavy rains, the water quality in the Seine was poor during most of June, making it unsuitable for swimming. On the other hand, water quality tests recently came within sanitary standards six days a week from July 17 to 23.
“Given the weather forecast over the next 48 hours, Paris 2024 and ITU are confident that water quality will return to below limits before the start of the triathlon competition on 30 July,” they stressed.
The sun is expected to return to the French capital on Sunday.
Photo by AFP
USA Triathlon Director Scott Schnitzspan expressed confidence Saturday: “We have a really good chance of doing a full triathlon,” USA Triathlon Director of High Performance Scott Schnitzspan said. “By carefully monitoring and looking at how the (rainwater harvesting) system responds to rainfall, we really have a good chance of doing a full triathlon.”
The state and the communities of Île-de-France have pumped €1.4 billion into making the Seine and its main tributary, the Marne, swimmable since 2016.
Updating wastewater treatment plants, connecting barges to the sewerage network, collecting plastic waste… The plan also resulted in five major works, including a rainwater and wastewater retention basin near Austerlitz station, a veritable underground cathedral dug in the middle of Paris.
