Paris 2024 Olympics: First triathlon training planned in the Seine cancelled due to water pollution

Le premier entraînement prévu ce dimanche matin est annulé. MAXPPP – Bruno LEVESQUE

The rains that fell on Friday and Saturday in Paris soiled the Seine for the next few hours, forcing the organizers to cancel the triathlon training planned for Sunday morning in the river, but they remain “confident” that the events will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The triathlon is the first Olympic event to be held in the Seine, before the open water swimming in the second week of the Paris Olympics.

On the night of Saturday to Sunday, the organizing committee of the Olympics, the International Triathlon Federation, as well as the local authorities, took the “joint decision to cancel the swimming part of the triathlon familiarization” scheduled for Sunday, because the “water levels do not provide sufficient guarantees”, they indicated in a press release.

On Saturday afternoon, the organizers had already warned that the previous day's deluge, some 16 mm of water, was likely to degrade the quality of the water.

“Athletes' health”

They did not specify on Sunday the level of E.Coli and enterococci bacteria, which must be below a certain threshold, but emphasized “the priority of the athletes' health”.

Before swimming on Tuesday and Wednesday, the triathletes have the possibility to “familiarize” oneself with the river, even if some decide to continue training in the swimming pool, notably in the legendary George Vallerey swimming pool in the east of Paris where the athletes of the 1924 Olympic Games were already swimming.

“The running and cycling events” for Sunday morning's training “will take place as planned”, organizers said.

Ten days after Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip, promising Parisians that they would be able to swim in the river next summer, the triathletes will not be able to test the Seine on Sunday morning.

Due to heavy rain, the water in the Seine had been of poor quality for much of June, making it impossible to swim. In contrast, water quality analyses were recently within health standards six days a week from July 17 to 23.

“Given the weather forecast for the next 48 hours, Paris 2024 and World Triathlon are confident that water quality will return to below limits before the start of triathlon competitions on July 30”, they assured.

The sun was expected to return to the French capital this Sunday. On Saturday, a U.S. triathlon team official expressed his confidence: “We really have a good chance of doing the full triathlon,”, said the U.S. triathlon team's high performance manager, Scott Schnitzspahn. “With close monitoring and looking at how the system (of rainwater harvesting deployed, editor's note) responds to rainfall, we really have a good chance of doing the full triathlon,”, he added.

The state and local authorities of the Paris region have injected 1.4 billion euros since 2016 to make the Seine and its main tributary, the Marne, swimmable.

Modernization of sewage treatment plants, connection of barges to the sewer system, collection of plastic waste… The plan also gave rise to five major works, including a rainwater and wastewater retention basin near the Gare d'Austerlitz, a veritable underground cathedral dug in the heart of Paris.