Olympic organisers have blamed the climate crisis for the postponement of the men’s triathlon on Tuesday.
Paris 2024 said the equivalent of the annual rainfall for July had fallen on the city on Friday and Saturday, leading to higher than permitted levels of E coli entering the Seine and forcing it to delay the race for safety reasons.
After a 2.30am inspection, the men’s triathlon has been rescheduled for 9.45am local time on Wednesday. The women’s race is due to start at 7am.
After the announcement, organisers faced a barrage of questions whether their ambition to stage a made-for-TV triathlon had put spectacular images of Paris above athlete safety.
“We are living in the 21st century where unfortunately there are far more meteorological events that happen which are beyond the control of the organisers,” said Aurélie Merle, the Paris 2024 director of sports.
“We’ve gone from heavy rain to extreme heat in very few days. So it’s actually hard to control how it can affect the quality of the river.”
Merle revealed that only one of four test sites on the Seine was below the threshold for E coli on Tuesday. Two other sites were just above the limit and one was more elevated, she said, citing a range of 980 to 1,553. According to European rules, the safe limit is 900 colony-forming units per 100 millilitres.
“There have been significant improvements but let’s be very clear: we can’t control the weather,” Merle said.
“The weather did have a significant impact and has been the cause of the readings we have today. But equally you see the buildup period that we had a number of days of extreme conditions.”
Team GB’s Alex Yee and Beth Potter, who are favourites for the men’s and women’s races respectively, face an anxious wait to find out if water quality improves enough to allow them to race.
The hope is that a full Olympic triathlon – consisting of a 1500m swim, 40km bike ride and 10km run – will take place on Wednesdaytoday, starting under the Pont Alexandre III bridge before going past several notable Paris venues.
If the races are delayed again, a contingency day is planned for Friday. But if the Seine continues to be unsafe to swim in, the races will revert to a duathlon, with a 5km run replacing the 1500m swim.
There are further complications, however. Thunder and lightning is in the forecast over the next 24 hours, while the current in the Seine is also higher than expected.
A Team GB source said that if the triathlon is delayed again on Wednesdaytoday and with the rain forecast this week, that it will become a duathlon with the waters too dirty to compete. “The forecast is such that it will only get worse. For the competitors, it is not just about the quality of the water; many have competed in far worse during their careers. It is about the speed of the currents if the waters are high.
“It will be much tougher if you have to swim against the current and the times will be much slower. It is a very tough ask for the competitors who are not strong swimmers.”
Kit McConnell, the International Olympic Committee’s sports director, said they were looking at ways for friends and family of those racing in the men’s event to still be able to watch them compete. “That’s being discussed at the moment just to see how we can accommodate that, two sessions into one tomorrow,” he said.
Efforts to make the river suitable for swimming have cost €1.4bn (£1.2bn). They have included the construction of a giant basin to capture excess rainwater and keep wastewater from flowing into the river, renovating sewer infrastructure and upgrading treatment plants.
Gergely Markus, of World Triathlon, confirmed that extra heat protection measures would be put in place on Wednesday if the races went ahead, with temperatures forecast to exceed 30C.
“We are working already with the teams to support even more the heat countermeasures,” he said. “And providing more ice, providing more water stations, so just to support the athletes, to make sure that they are safe.”
