Water quality, water current, swimming biomechanics, tactical warfare. The men's triathlon was already shaping up as one of the events of the Paris Olympics, now it's become even more fascinating.
River Seine water quality below standard
Just three days out from the race, a near constant downpour lasting the best part of 24 hours has organisers scrambling. It's widely believed the scheduled swimming practice for athletes in the Seine will be cancelled, with readings reportedly showing the quality is below the standard needed to be deemed safe.
Despite that, organisers remain confident the race will still comprise the traditional swim-bike-run, instead of being reduced to a duathlon (run-bike-run).
"We are nonetheless confident in our ability to organise the events as planned from July 30. Given the weather forecast for the next 48 hours, we expect the water quality to return to below limits within the next 24 to 36 hours," a Paris 2024 spokesperson told The Guardian.
The Seine river at sunset. (Source: istock.com)
Swimming in the Seine has been banned for more than a century, with reports organisers have spent around $2 billion to clean it up in time for the Games.
New Zealand's gold medal hope Hayden Wilde is completely unfazed.
"I'm actually pretty comfortable, I've done a few manus in the Whakatāne river," Wilde joked to 1 News outside the athletes' village.
"I'm ready for the Seine. They've put a lot of protocols in to make it as safe as possible for us so I'm really looking forward to getting in there."
If it is reduced to what would be an historical duathlon, Wilde and coach Craig Kirkwood have talked about a potential race plan.
"We've definitely talked about it," Kirkwood admits. "I don't know if we've come up with a plan but, hopefully, it doesn't come to that, nobody wants the Olympic duathlon title — [you'd have] a big asterisk next to your name."
Wilde's swim leg strengthens
Tokyo bronze medallist Wilde, 26, is certain he doesn't want the swim leg to be removed from the race, despite it being traditionally his worst of the three.
That said, he could be ready to spring a surprise on his rivals in the first 1.5km of the event due to a technical few months in his base in Andorra.
"I had to completely change my swim strokes.
It's so hard changing [a] human's nature of just repeating habits, so I'm really happy to finally cross that bridge and be swimming the best I ever have," says Wilde.
"For example, over 150 metres in the swimming pool, I'm swimming about 10 seconds quicker.
"It hasn't actually sacrificed any of my running ability nor my cycling ability and I didn't have to put on any extra body muscle or anything."
River current adds a different challenge
Wilde will need to factor in potentially an even bigger race-changer — the stronger current in the Seine.
The storm has added the new dimension to the race. Wilde's team has looked at statistics compared to last year's Test Event (where Wilde struggled after a crash on his bike the day before), with current readings three-times stronger currently.
"There's not a lot you can do to prepare for that. We've looked at some stats in terms of river flow and where to position upstream and downstream in the river and how close to someone's hip or feet you need to be.
"It's going to play a factor. Any gap will separate a group really quickly, particularly on the second lap when bodies are tired and the fast swimmers accelerate.
'I've cracked the code'
So, if the race gets through the traditional two opening legs, many are predicting it will be a sprint on two legs.
British rival Alex Yee, 26, has the favourable record over Wilde in the Olympic distance since Tokyo. The Brit finished ahead of the New Zealander in all-but-one of six meetingsl, most recently a World Series race in Cagliari in May.
"I didn't really want to show off my cards," Wilde says of the Italian race. "I had a lot more in the tank there.
"I feel like it's bad 'juju' to win ahead of the Olympics. As much as you want to win every race, I don't want to show all my cards because you can let others train for specific parts of the race.
"I feel like I've actually cracked the code."
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