The 2024 Paris Olympics organisers decided to abandon the first training session for triathletes due to pollution in the River Seine.
A meeting took place to determine the quality of the water in the rivers and tests, after which the decision to cancel the training session was taken, "a joint decision was taken to cancel the swimming part of the triathlon orientation," a Paris 2024 and World Triathlon statement said.
Earlier this month, the River Seine was declared clean enough as the water was clean for the past few days. However, doubts remained about whether it would remain clean by the time Olympics would start or not.
"Paris 2024 and World Triathlon reiterate that the priority is the health of the athletes. The analysis carried out yesterday in the Seine showed water quality levels that... do not present sufficient guarantees to allow the event to take place," the statement said.
The organisers believed that the rain was to blame for recent events as they were “confident” that water quality would get better before the triathlon competition starts on July 30.
The “Plan B”, if the quality of the water is below standards, will take place which involves postponing the events for a few days or moving the marathon swimming to Vaires-sur-Marne, on the Marne river east of Paris.
It is worth mentioning that on July 17, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, along with Paris 2024 chief organiser Tony Estanguet, swam in the Seine after which she said, “The Seine is exquisite. The water is very, very good. A little cool, but not so bad.''
To clean up the river by improving the Paris sewerage system along with building new water treatment and storage facilities, the French authorities have spent around 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in the last decade.
