“There was no objection to swimming”: despite the Seine's pollution threshold being exceeded, triathletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics swam there

Les triathlètes se sont élancés ce matin dans la Seine. MAXPPP – David Davies

Les triathlètes ont été informés des analyses de l'eau de la Seine avant le relais mixte lundi, y compris du dépassement des taux réglementaires sur un des quatre points de test, a indiqué lundi le comité d'organisation des JO de Paris (Cojo).

After the cancellation of two training sessions this weekend because the Seine was not clean enough, the International Triathlon Federation (World Triathlon) decided on Sunday evening to maintain the race, according to the organizers.

“These results were presented to the athletes and there was no objection to swimming” from them, said Cojo spokesperson Anne Descamps during a press briefing.

Read also: JO Paris 2024: a triathlete infected after swimming in the Seine ? Oudéa-Castera denounces "false information"

Shortly before the announcement of the decision to maintain the mixed relay, the Belgian Olympic Committee had indicated that its triathlete Claire Michel had fallen ill, rekindling questions about the healthiness of the river. Generally, this decision to hold or not the race is made at night, a few hours before, based on analyses dating back 24 hours, as well as on criteria such as the smell, the appearance of the water, and the weather of the last few hours.

This system means that we can only be certain after the fact whether the water was swimmable or not at the exact moment of the event. Since the start of the Olympics, four training sessions have been cancelled, and the men's triathlon event has been postponed by one day. Asked on what basis the decision was made on Sunday evening, Cojo spokesperson Anne Descamps referred at a press conference to “the weather” and“predictive analyses”.

Shared with athletes

The results have been “shared” with the athletes and “we will share the results (of analyses) from this morning tomorrow” (Tuesday), she assured. She read to journalists what had been communicated to athletes on Monday morning by World Triathlon: the decision was taken due to “the continued improvement in water quality following heavy rains in the Paris region on August 1 and 2”, “the sunny weather on August 4 with high temperatures”.

She also mentioned “the analysis results of August 4 at 05:30 taken at the four collection points ranging from 727 to 1,553 CFU/ml” for the E. Coli bacteria, the most problematic. The regulatory threshold is set at 1,000.

Several gastric discomforts

The rate of 1,553 was therefore above, but it was only one of the four control points and for this problematic point, a second laboratory measured all the rates below the threshold, according to the text read by Ms. Descamps.

In addition to the Belgian athlete, several triathletes reported gastric discomforts, without establishing a link with swimming.