Triathlon events postponed until Monday due to poor water quality in the Seine

All the events of the Paralympic Games para triathlon, which were to take place on Sunday 1^is September in Paris, were postponed by one day due to a “deterioration of the water quality of the Seine” due to the weather, the organizers announced on the night of Saturday to Sunday.

The eleven events planned for the programme, which include a swimming section in the Parisian river, as at the Olympic Games, should be held on Monday as rain has returned to the capital.

“The latest analyses show a deterioration in the quality of the water in the Seine following the heavy rainfall over the last two days.”said a press release sent to Agence France-Presse, after a meeting held in the presence of representatives of Paris-2024, the World Triathlon Federation and the authorities involved in carrying out water quality tests.

The decision to postpone the competition to Monday “is taken subject to the next water analyses being in accordance with the thresholds established by the World Triathlon for swimming”we can still read in the press release. The organizers specify that the priority “is the health of the athletes and that, under these conditions, the para triathlon events cannot take place today” Sunday.

Initially, the Paralympic para triathlon events, which start and finish at the Alexandre-III bridge, were to take place over two days, on September 1 and 2.

The training sessions took place

As early as Thursday, the organizing committee had announced their regrouping on September 1st due to the weather forecast. Two training sessions in the Seine were able to take place on Thursday and Friday morning, before a final one was canceled on Saturday as a precaution.

The course of the event is made up of 750 meters of swimming, 20 kilometers of para cycling and 5 kilometers of running.

The quality of the water in the Seine has been at the heart of discussions for weeks, as swimming in the Parisian river is to be part of the great legacies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

During the Olympics, several triathlon and open water swimming training sessions were cancelled and the men’s triathlon was also postponed by a day due to water being unsuitable for swimming, due to heavy rain. To give the green light to the competitions, the authorities are closely monitoring two levels of fecal bacteria: that of the bacterium E. coli and that of enterococci.