Worries over the Seine River’s water quality persist as the 2024 Olympics approach, leading to the cancellation of a pre-race triathlon event on Sunday.
Organizers decided to scrap the swimming leg of the triathlon familiarization scheduled for Sunday morning following a water quality assessment meeting. The meeting included representatives from World Triathlon, along with city and regional authorities.
Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century in large part due to poor water quality.
Organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare the Seine for these Games, and the government has said the river would be clean enough to hold events, including the swimming portion of the triathlon and the marathon swimming event.
Daily water quality tests in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a famous dip in the river less than two weeks before Olympic events were set to start, fulfilling a promise to show that the long-polluted waterway was clean enough to host swimming competitions.
Heavy rain during the opening ceremony revived concerns over whether the long-polluted waterway will be clean enough to host swimming competitions since water quality is deeply linked with the weather in the French capital.
Since 2015, organizers have invested heavily to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
Triathletes have expressed hope that the waters would be clean enough for them to swim in.
“Hopefully we get to swim, bike, and run because I don’t swim this much to just run and bike,” Spanish triathlete Alberto Gonzalez said.
