Paralympic Triathlon Events Postponed Due To Seine’s Poor Water Quality

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Water quality issues persist in Paris as the Paralympic triathlon competitions have been postponed. After heavy rainfall this weekend, Games organizers said that concerns about the water quality led them and World Triathlon to postpone the competitions.

Despite Paris officials and Games organizers spending over a billion euros to clean up the Seine, heavy rainfall always had the potential to derail the Olympic and Paralympic schedule as Paris deputy mayor Pierre Rabadan told the press as early as spring 2023. In April 2024 after a month of heavy rainfall that saw the Seine flood, the president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, Tony Estanguet, reemphasized the warning that rain could lead to poor water quality in the Seine when he announced that Olympic triathlon events could become a duathlon if the water quality was poor.

After the events’ cancellations, Rabadan told reporters that “it rained a lot Friday and then it also rained Saturday. So the international federation and the organizing committee…out of a principle of caution decided to delay the events for a day, probably until tomorrow,” per the AP.

During last month’s Olympic Games, training sessions were canceled for both triathlon and open-water athletes. The men’s triathlon was postponed and raced on the same day as the women’s competition. Several athletes experienced complications after racing in the river, including 2023 World Champion Leonie Beck, who posted on her Instagram story about the GI symptoms she experienced after her open water event. Sweden’s Victor Johansson withdrew from the men’s 10K on a doctor’s recommendation due to water quality concerns.

Officials will retest the water quality and if it is within acceptable levels, all 11 triathlon events will race on Monday, September 2nd. This is the second schedule change for the triathlon events. They were originally scheduled to take place over Sunday and Monday but were moved to Sunday because of the forecast.

Paris is under a moderate thunderstorm warning until midnight on September 2nd local time.