The postponement is a major blow to Paris organisers who had been confident that a huge investment in cleaning up the Seine would be sufficient to stage all the races on schedule. French authorities have spent €1.4 billion (£1.17 million) improving the Paris sewerage system and building new water treatment facilities.
Aurelie Merle, executive director of sports for Paris 24, said that the readings were fluctuating daily but acknowledged that there was a “a chance that there could be some storms and maybe rain later” on Tuesday following earlier forecasts for wall-to-wall sun and 34 degrees Celsius heat. Dry and sunny conditions help to improve the water quality and kill bacteria but heavy rain causes an overflow to the sewage system.
Heavy rain dirtied river days before start of Paris 2024
Merle said that the equivalent of a normal month of rainfall came down over the course of 36 hours from Friday – when the opening ceremony became drenched – and athletes must now wait until 4am on Wednesday to discover whether they would be racing later that same morning. “We are hopeful we can organise these two events tomorrow,” she said.
There were reports of anger inside the French camp at the situation but Team GB, for whom Alex Yee and Beth Potter are respective favourites for the men’s and women’s races, say that they will be ready whatever happens. “The postponement is clearly disappointing, but we understand the organising committee’s desire for the event to go ahead as a triathlon,” said Mike Cavendish, the British Triathlon performance director.
“We’re encouraged by the weather forecast and are now supporting Alex and Sam [Dickinson] as they look to re-focus ahead of tomorrow’s race. Our preparations up to this point have been excellent and we have no doubt that they’ll be ready to race when the time comes.”
Tuesday’s early morning meeting was attended by Météo France alongside the Olympic organisers and the decision to try to run both races on Wednesday, rather than wait for Friday’s reserve day, was down to good forecast for most of Tuesday followed by a greater risk of rain on Wednesday and Thursday. Marisol Casado, the president of World Triathlon, said that they were “confident that it will happen tomorrow”.
Merle confirmed that the readings of E.coli were between 980 and 1,535 colony-forming units per 100 millilitres. The safe limit for World Triathlon competition is 900, but it was stressed that there is a delay of around 21 hours on the results and that the readings could change quickly in the sunny conditions that have been evident in Paris since Sunday. “We were very close to the threshold,” said Merle. “We have data from one year – we know that the sun has a very strong impact on the quality. We were so close this morning – we can hopefully believe that water quality can be better.
“We are living in the 21st century where, unfortunately, there are meteorological events beyond the control of organisers. We go from heavy rain to extreme heat in a few days.”
Organisers said that they were also confident that a later 10.45am start would not present heat risks for the men on Wednesday.
Casado acknowledged that particularly stronger swimmers would be disadvantaged if the race did become a duathlon but said that the sport had faced increasing weather-related cancellations over the past five years and that it was the same for every athlete. If it is reduced to a duathlon, one potential positive for Team GB is that both Yee and Potter come from running backgrounds and are particularly strong in that discipline.
The pollution levels had moved into acceptable limits last month – with the Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and Paris 2024 chief executive Tony Estanguet going for a swim in the days leading up the Games – but Friday’s torrential rain again caused a worsening of conditions.
“Paris 2024 and World Triathlon reiterate that their priority is the health of the athletes,” said a statement.
Why has the Olympic triathlon been postponed and what happens now?
A swimmable Seine is a key legacy Games organisers aim to leave behind for Paris residents.
Did organisers not say the River Seine would be fine to swim in?
The Seine was suitable for swimming six days out of seven between July 17-23, data published late last week showed. However, unseasonably heavy rainfall on the day of the opening ceremony last Friday as well as Saturday raised pollution levels.
The monitoring group (State and City of Paris), based on Eau de Paris water analysis, publishes weekly results.
A test was conducted at 3:30am on Tuesday where pollution levels remained too high for athletes to safely enter the water.
What are the conditions that caused the triathlon to be postponed?
There are two different bacteria that testers measure before deciding if pollution levels are safe to swim in.
The first is E. coli (Escherichia coli), a bacteria commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms and which most strains are harmless, but some can cause serious illness. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhoea.
The second bacteria is Enterococcus faecalis, a common faecal bacteria that is used as an indicator of water quality at swimming pools, open water and public beaches.
How do they test the water?
The safe limit for E. coli is 900 colony-forming units (cfu) per 100ml of water, and the limit for Enterococcus is 330 cfu/100ml.
Every afternoon the day before each session and before each competition, a technical committee meets, bringing together all the players involved in the issue of water quality in the Seine: City of Paris, Paris 2024, the International Federation, regional authorities and Meteo France.
At the end of this technical committee meeting, an initial analysis is made of the weather conditions.
At 3:30am on the day of the competition, a final meeting is held with all those involved.
Why is the Seine so polluted?
There are four key factors that have caused pollution levels to rise in recent days and which, organisers hope, will bring it back down in time for Wednesday’s rescheduled triathlon. They are:
Rainfall: more rain in the days leading up to the event caused more pollution run-off, such as fertiliser, oil, pesticides, dirt, bacteria and other pollutants that do not dissolve.
UV index: Higher UV levels help kill off bacteria quicker.
Temperature: Like UV levels, the higher the temperature the faster bacteria dies. According to the director of water quality at the Paris city hall, Benjamin Raugneau, “whether the temperature of the water is 16 degrees Celsius or above 22 Celsius like it usually is in the summer makes a significant difference”.
River flow: the faster the flow of the river, the higher the level of pollution. Recent storms have significantly increased the level of water flowing into the Seine.
What has been done to clean up the Seine?
A new sewage plant was opened before the Games in an effort to improve water treatment facilities, and an underground reservoir designed to hold 46,000 cubic metres of run-off water during storms was also built into the city’s river network.
This was designed to mitigate against Paris’s antiquated sewage network that previously saw high levels of untreated waste flow into the Seine.
The reservoir, which is 30m deep and the size of 12 Olympic swimming pools, means water can be treated before being released back into the seine.
What happens now?
The men’s triathlon will be postponed until Wednesday July 31 and take place immediately after the women’s event, which begins at 8am local time (7am BST). However, water pollution levels will need to pass another 3:30am test on Wednesday morning.
Should levels fail to drop, or more rain arrives to cause another spike, then a ‘contingency day’ has been pencilled in by the IOC and World Triathlon for Friday August 2, when both races may be staged if necessary.
If, despite the postponements, the triathlon events cannot take place, the marathon swimming event will take place at the reserve site of Vaires-sur-Marne, where rowing and canoeing events are held.