Second Seine training session cancelled due to water pollution

The triathletes involved will not be able to train in the Seine before the start of the event on Tuesday July 30.

The rains that fell on Friday and Saturday in Paris, which led to pollution of the Seine, have once again forced the organizers of the Olympic Games to cancel the triathlon training planned for Monday morning in the river, as they did the day before. They remain “confident” on the holding of the tests on Tuesday and Wednesday, they announced very early on Monday July 29.

The Olympic Organizing Committee, the International Triathlon Federation and local authorities have taken the “decision to cancel the swimming part of the triathlon familiarization” scheduled for 8 a.m. on July 29, like the day before, because the “water quality levels (…) do not provide sufficient guarantees”they said in a statement.

The triathlon is the first Olympic event to be held in the Seine, before the open water swimming on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 August. The men’s individual triathlon event is due to start at 8am on Tuesday, before the women’s individual event at the same time on Wednesday.

This will therefore be without prior reconnaissance of the swimming route in the river, starting from the Pont Alexandre-III. And this while the flow of the Seine, swollen by the rains of recent weeks, is three times higher than a usual summer level (more than 400 m3 per second on Monday morning, compared to 100 to 150 in normal times).

On the other hand, “Training for running and cycling events will take place as planned“Monday, specified Paris 2024 and World Triathlon. The latter are”confident that water quality will return below limits before the start of triathlon competitions on July 30“Tuesday and this”taking into account the weather forecast for the next 36 hours“.