The men’s triathlon event at the 2024 Paris Olympics has been pushed back to tomorrow, Wednesday, after high pollution levels and low water quality in the Seine River. The Seine, which flows down the heart of Paris, has had high E. coli levels leading up to the Games.
This is the third day in a row in which the triathlon athletes have been affected. The last two days have featured the cancellation of the training session for the triathletes in the Seine due to high pollution levels.
The men’s race is now scheduled for Wednesday, the same day as the women’s triathlon. If the water quality is still poor tomorrow, Friday is set as a backup date for both races. Paris organizers have also announced that Plan B for the triathlon is to host the events as a duathlon, a race with only biking and running.
The Seine is also scheduled to hold the open water races which are scheduled for next week. World Triathlon and World Aquatics (in charge of the open water races) have different acceptable limits for E.Coli and other bacterial levels:
World Aquatics requirements for inland waterways:
● Enterococci score: <200 is Excellent; <400 is Good; >400 is Unacceptable
● E. Coli score: <500 is Excellent; <1,000 is Good; >1,000 is Unacceptable
World Triathlon requirements for inland waterways:
● Enterococci score: <200 is Excellent; <400 is Good; <330 is Sufficient
● E. Coli score: <500 is Excellent; <1,000 is Good; <900 is Sufficient
Rain is expected to be in the forecast tonight with “heavy and torrential downpours at times,” according to The Weather Channel at the time of publishing. That rain is forecasted to continue into tomorrow as well. NBC reported on its broadcast during the Opening Ceremony that the E. Coli levels were “too high” that day. If the races were held that day, they would have been postponed. The situation has continued.
Triathlon Federation must take some blame too- did they sign off on this???
This is absolutely not the way to host an Olympic event. These incompetent organizers have known for months (years?) that this river was literally a shit show. But they plan to swim in it anyway.
A high level of ridiculousness!
Open water is at risk of being moved. But at least they have an alternative. No alternative for Triathlon.
Swimming in the Seine river has been banned for over 100 years. A thousand years worth of sewage of one of the worlds largest cities have been dumped into it.
This shouldnt be a shock to anyone. Complete arrogance on the organizers and a failure of oversight on the Olympic and Triatholon associations in charge of these sports.
Believe that about the Seine.
Why don’t they race in Nize or any other place? Duathlon is not triathlon, that would be bad call.
They’ve committed to the backdrop of the Arc and Eiffel as a highlight moment of the games. I don’t blame them. Would be spectacular.
But not as spectacular in amplitude as the embarrassment of making it a duathlon.
Yea this CANNOT be a duathlon. That would be a major scandal, a huge embarrassment, an afront to the sport of triathlon, and a major scar on this Olympics. Find another location, fly the athletes there and host the correct event.
The French cleaned the Seine the same way they resisted the Germans in WW2, NOT AT ALL
You’re not wrong
Best comment I’ve seen all week.
Thank you.
They’ve been this way ever since they won WW1…
This is just sad. Zero culpability. Zero care. They had years and years to figure this out and these triathletes and open water swimmers spend their whole life training for this. Swimming/acquatic seems to be an afterthought at these Olympics, including the competition pool.
How can a score be “good” but not “sufficient”?
The expression about hand grenades comes to mind.
That was also my thought.
The backup plan for the open water is to use the rowing lake which is around 40k from the Olympic village. They cannot use another location for the triathlon as the cycle and run courses are already planned round the centre of Paris
There’s no “cannot” here. Just change the plan. Setup the race elsewhere. Triathlons are hosted successfully all over the world. If the French cannot successfully run it, give it to another country/organization to do it and run the event later in the year. A duathlon is an embarrassment to the world.
Yes,just do it at the rowing course…I did a few triathlons at Sydney’s Regatta Centre- it was a great venue.
The Bike leg of triathlon is 40km so you’d think they could put the swim start there, bike into Paris and then have the oh so wanted scenic route for the run
Is their reasoning for making it a duathlon instead of just moving the swim location because it would also necessitate moving the location of the other legs? Is the alternate swim site that far from the original bike/run course that they couldn’t pull it off?
As has been pointed out a lot on here this is a massive fail that almost everyone saw coming for a long time and could have been easily avoided. Feel bad for these athletes.
Which that is the case because the organizers quite publically and proudly refused to consider that the Seine would not be viable. They had ample time to actually have a plan b ready to go
The organizers of this event should resign. Probably the mayor of Paris as well. Maybe Macron too. Iirc Mayor Hidalgo & Macron lent their credibility to the plan all while the Seine continues to fail test after test. And not having a viable backup? This is gross mismanagement.