The Paris Olympics have already canceled triathlon swimming training twice due to water pollution in the Seine River. The quality of the water in the river does not provide an "adequate guarantee" for training, the Olympic organizing committee, the World Triathlon Federation and the French capital's authorities said on Monday, UNN reports citing DW.
Details
Given the weather forecast, the organizers expressed confidence that the water quality would improve to the required level by the start of the competition, scheduled for July 30 and 31. The day before, the triathletes' first training session was canceled. The water quality in the Seine deteriorated due to heavy rains over the previous two days.
According to Germany's head coach Thomas Möller, the organizers warned of the possibility of water quality deterioration for "a day or two," and alternative training locations were organized.
Addendum
Even before the Games began, the water quality in the Seine was actively discussed in the media. For the last hundred years, swimming in the river was prohibited, but the Seine was cleaned up for the Olympics, as it was one of the key points in Paris' bid to host the Games. During the cleanup, the city's sewage system was modernized to prevent sewage from entering the river. About 1.4 billion euros were spent on cleaning the Seine.
However, due to the rainy summer, regular checks in the run-up to the Games revealed dangerous levels of bacteria in the river. Only a few days before the start of the Olympics, the water samples were recognized as safe. On July 17, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, took a dip in the Seine herself to demonstrate its suitability for the competition. Hidalgo was joined in this swim by the chairman of the 2024 Olympic Organizing Committee, Olympic champion in rowing slalom Tony Estange, and the prefect of the Ile-de-France capital region, Marc Guillaume. They were followed by about a dozen amateur athletes. In 2025, the Parisian authorities plan to open several swimming spots on the Seine.