The Olympic men’s triathlon has been postponed due to poor quality in the Seine River, World Triathlon, the sport’s governing body, announced Monday.
The event was originally scheduled to take place on Tuesday, but is now scheduled to take place Wednesday on the same day as the women’s triathlon.
“Paris 2024 and World Triathlon reiterate that their priority is the health of the athletes. The tests carried out in Seine today revealed water quality levels that did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held,” World Triathlon said in a press release said.
“Despite the improvement on the water quality levels in the last hours, the readings at some points of the swim course are still above the acceptable limits.”
The sport’s governing body, World Triathlon, its medical team and city officials are banking on sunny weather and higher temperatures to bring levels of E. coli and other bacteria below the necessary limits to stage the swim portion of the race, which also includes biking and running.
World Triathlon also made the decision to cancel the swim workout on Monday following a meeting over water quality in the Seine, which is closely linked to the weather. Rain deluged Friday’s opening ceremony and showers persisted Saturday, forcing some tennis matches and the skateboarding competition to be postponed.
The representatives for Paris 2024 and triathlon’s international federation said tests conducted in the Seine on Sunday showed water quality levels leading into the training session that “did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held.” The delegation blamed the recent rain.
Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century in big part because of the poor water quality. Organizers have invested 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to prepare the river ahead of the Olympics.
In addition to the swimming part of the men’s triathlon and women’s triathlon Wednesday, the Seine is expected to be used for the marathon swimming competitions on Aug. 8 and 9.
Daily water quality tests in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements. Some of the measures put in place to improve the water quality include the construction of a giant basin to capture excess rainwater and keep wastewater from flowing into the river, renovating sewer infrastructure and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
High levels of E. coli in water can indicate contamination from sewage. Most strains are harmless and some live in the intestines of healthy people and animals. But others can be dangerous. Even a mouthful of contaminated water can lead to diarrhea or infections in the urinary tract or in the intestines or other illnesses.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a very public swim in the river about two weeks before Olympic events were set to start, hoping to ease fears about the long-polluted waterway being clean enough to host swimming competitions.
— With files from the Associated Press
