Triathlon races to go ahead on Wednesday as Seine passes water tests

Organisers cleared the Olympic women's and men's triathlons to go ahead on Wednesday after the latest Seine river water tests showed lower levels of bacteria, ending days of uncertainty over whether the central Paris swim was viable after heavy rains.

The men's triathlon had been scheduled to take place on Tuesday but was postponed until Wednesday after the river failed water quality tests.

News that the races would go ahead on Wednesday came as a relief for teams and athletes, as well as for Paris authorities who have promised residents a swimmable Seine as a long-term legacy of the Games, with the triathlon a very public test.

“It is with great joy that we received this news,” Benjamin Maze, technical director for France's triathlon federation, told Reuters. “Now that we know we will race, we can mentally switch fully into competition mode.”

Fifty-five women representing 34 countries will kick off the contest at 8am Paris time, with France's Cassandre Beaugrand and Britain's Beth Potter, two of the top contenders for gold, set to dive into the river side by side.

The men's event will take place at 10:45am, immediately after the women's race.

“The results of the latest water analyses, received at 3.20am, have been assessed as compliant by World Triathlon allowing for the triathlon competitions to take place,” Paris 2024 and World Triathlon said in a statement.

Paris has spent €1.4bn of public money on wastewater infrastructure to contain sewage and minimise spillage into the river, and Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip earlier this month in a bid to convince doubters that the water will not make them ill.

The decision to postpone the men's race at the last minute on Tuesday had triggered anger among some athletes.

“If the priority was the health of the athletes this event would have been moved to another location a long time ago,” Belgium's Marten Van Riel wrote on World Triathlon's Instagram page.

“We are just puppets in a puppet show.”

The gamble that the river would be clean enough for the triathlon was never guaranteed to pay off as water quality varies widely day-to-day, with rainfall causing concentrations of infection-causing bacteria like E. coli to rise.

Wednesday's races were given the green light despite rain overnight and forecasts for showers around midday which could hit towards the end of the men's event.

Organisers make the call based on analysis of river samples taken the previous day at 5am combined with a discussion between experts on overnight weather, according to Paris 2024.

Reuters