The two triathlon events of the 2024 Olympic Games scheduled for Wednesday will be able to take place, the organizing committee and the international body World Triathlon announced overnight, the day after the men’s race was postponed due to excessively polluted water in the Seine.
“The stakeholders concerned have confirmed that the women’s triathlon and the men’s triathlon will take place as planned. The results of the latest water analyses have been deemed compliant,” they said in a statement.
The women’s race will start at 8:00 a.m. (2:00 a.m. in Quebec) at the Pont Alexandre III, in the heart of Paris. The men will start at 10:45 a.m. (4:45 a.m. in Quebec), from the same location.
The men’s race was originally scheduled to take place on Tuesday morning, but was postponed for “health reasons” as bacteria levels found “in some areas” of the course were “still above acceptable limits”.
After heavy rains fell on Friday and Saturday in the French capital, the improvement in weather conditions since Sunday has led to an improvement in water quality.
A relief for the athletes, who were at risk of seeing their triathlon stripped of its swimming part and transformed into a duathlon (running, cycling, running).
It is also a relief for the organizers and local authorities, in particular the Paris city hall and the prefecture of the Île-de-France region, which have been working for years on the Seine decontamination project.
The State and the Paris region’s local authorities have invested 1.4 billion euros to make the river and its main tributary, the Marne, swimmable, in preparation for the Olympic Games and for the general public afterwards.
After months of questions, sport will resume on Wednesday, with several French chances of medals, both for women and men.