Seine River water quality remains a concern, after officials called off the swimming portion of an Olympic triathlon training session for a second straight day.
Event organisers overseeing the event at the Paris Games are optimistic triathletes will be able to swim in the city’s famed waterway, when the competition starts on Tuesday.
Governing body World Triathlon and its medical team, along with city officials, are banking on sunny weather and higher temperatures over the next 36 hours to improve the water quality, and bring it below the necessary limits to stage the swim portion of a race that also includes biking and running.
World Triathlon have made the decision to cancel the swim workout after a meeting over water quality. The representatives for Paris 2024 and triathlon’s international federation say tests conducted in the Seine showed water quality levels that “did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held”.
Hayden Wilde in World Cup Triathlon action. (Source: Photosport)
The delegation says this was due to recent rain that impacted the opening ceremony.
Swimming in the Seine has been banned for more than a century, mainly because of the poor water quality. Organisers have invested 1.4 billion euros (NZ$2.5b) to prepare the river for the Olympics. In addition to the swimming part of the triathlons, the Seine will be used for the marathon swimming competitions.
Kiwi Hayden Wilde is among the medal favourites in the men's triathlon, after taking bronze at Tokyo three years ago.
Torrential rain is threatening to reduce the men's triathlon to a duathlon, as Hayden Wilde claims he has cards yet to play against his fiercest rival. (Source: 1News)
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Daily water quality tests in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements. Some of the measures put in place to improve the water quality included the construction of a giant basin to capture excess rainwater and keep wastewater from flowing into the river, renovating sewer infrastructure and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo famously swam in the river less than two weeks before Olympics began, fulfilling a promise to show the long-polluted waterway was clean enough to host swimming competitions.
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