The triathlon still deprived of swimming in the Seine. The mixed relay competition of the 2024 Olympics test event also had to give up the river on Sunday, the water analyzes “not offering the necessary guarantees”, according to the organizers who hammer home their confidence in the Olympic deadline.
Published on: 08/20/2023 – 12:28 Modified on: 08/20/2023 – 15:32
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With less than a year to go (July 26-August 11, 2024), this is the third test event troubled by the quality of the river’s water in two weeks, since that of swimming in open water was canceled earlier this month. As for Sunday’s race, it was converted into a duathlon, like the para-triathlon test events the day before, namely only cycling and running. On the sporting side, this format has smiled on the German team, the Blues have failed them at the foot of the podium.
The cause of this impasse in the Seine remains the same: the concentration of Escherichia Coli (E. coli) bacteria in the river. The analyzes of three samples from the course showed levels above the regulatory threshold of 1,000 CFU per 100 ml set by World Triathlon before the race on Sunday, explained to AFP the sports assistant of the town hall of Paris, Pierre Rabadan. . The readings were between 1,300 and 1,400 CFU/100 ml, again according to him.
“Not yet found an explanation”
Storms, causing heavy rainfall in the event of waste water spilling into the river, are not the cause. “An investigation is underway to find the cause of this degradation but, to date, we have not yet found an explanation,” acknowledged Pierre Rabadan.
Competitors swimming in the Seine during the Olympic Games-2024 triathlon test event held on August 18, 2023 in Paris. © Bertrand Guay, AFP (Archives)
“We miss the march by very little, estimated the Minister of Sports and the Olympics, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. It is extremely encouraging, you have to see the glass half full […]. We’ll be there, I’ll say it again.”
Never before has a triathlon been converted into a duathlon at the Olympic Games, even if the discipline is certainly of recent appearance (2000). “It would be a shame,” said Beth Potter, winner of the women’s race on Thursday and second in the mixed relay on Sunday with the British team. “Hopefully next year it will be fine.”
“Water filtering is still in development. So next year it will be perfect,” said fellow countryman Alex Yee, winner of the men’s race. “What they are doing is truly historic, they are leaving a legacy after the Games. We can only applaud them.”
The work of connecting individuals who have inherited wild connections is indeed still in progress. “We are a quarter of the way there,” explained Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. “We have the prospect of correcting 23,000 bad connections. We must also finalize the connection to the mains drainage for all the barges.”
“Device not mature”
“The objective was to make the Seine swimmable in 2024, recalls the boss of the organizing committee (cojo), Tony Estanguet. This test takes place along the way, the device is not mature. There are still great efforts , new means deployed to improve the quality of the water in the Seine. As we have seen, it is improving month by month and will continue to improve.”
In addition, the reigning French world champion Léo Bergère did not “hear that athletes had come out sick” from the men’s race. This was disputed on Friday, the day of the first samples which proved to be beyond the regulatory threshold at the time of their laboratory analysis.
“The maximum is done by the organization”, insists Léo Bergère.
Confident in its plan, the organization does not consider a plan B, she insists. “Since the beginning, we have remained on the same project: it is to organize the triathlon and the para-triathlon in this extraordinary site, insists Tony Estanguet. You have a beautiful setting between the Grand Palais, the Invalides, the bridge Alexander III. This course, I believe, is unanimous.”
With AFP
