- The triathlon training for swimming is cancelled on Sunday and Monday
- It has led to questions about whether the event will go ahead on Tuesday morning
- The amount of fecal bacteria, known as E. coli, is measured daily in the River Seine
Triathletes – including Alex Yee, who won gold for Great Britain – go to bed on Monday night not knowing whether their race will go ahead the next morning.
Due to ongoing problems with the water quality in the Seine, the men’s training session scheduled for Sunday was cancelled. The women’s test session was also cancelled on Monday morning.
Officials will decide at around 3.30am local time whether the famous river, part of a £1billion clean-up operation, is fit to be flooded, four and a half hours earlier than the scheduled 8am start.
Should bacteria levels remain unsafe, organizers have two options. They can drop the swim and convert the event to a duathlon, or postpone it to a later date. August 2 is already set. The women’s triathlon is scheduled for Wednesday.
Swimming in the Seine, which runs through the city, has been prohibited since 1923. In 1990, Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, declared that he would make the water clean enough to swim in, but he failed to do so.
Second swimming training for Olympic triathlon in Paris cancelled
There are concerns that the event will not go ahead due to the worrying water quality
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Earlier this month, after a staggering investment, current Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a group of about 100 civil servants into the water and swam about 100 meters.
However, the heavy rainfall that disrupted the opening ceremony has affected the water quality, with a risk of contamination, particularly by E. coli.
Such a drop is harmful because it can cause problems with the wastewater and water velocity.
Last weekend, Tony Estanguet, the organizer of the Paris 2024 event, said at a press conference that he was “very confident” that the swim in the Seine would go ahead.
The heavy rainfall that disrupted the opening ceremony has affected the water quality
Yee, 26, from Lewisham, won silver in Tokyo and gold in the mixed relay and is seen as a strong contender in France.
Following this morning’s test results, a Paris 2024 spokesperson said: ‘Given the weather forecast for the next 36 hours, Paris 2024 and World Triathlon are confident that water quality will be back to below normal before the start of the triathlon competitions on 30 July.
‘As we saw in July, the water quality in the Seine has improved significantly thanks to the summer conditions (more sunshine, higher temperatures, longer periods without rain).’