The Olympic Games triathlon delivered two spectacular races at Paris 2024 on Wednesday, but the mood in the French capital had been very different for the preceding 24 hours.
Those brilliant victories for Cassandre Beaugrand and Alex Yee came hot on the heels of the furore after the men’s individual race had been postponed in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Months of concern about water quality in the River Seine – despite that much-vaunted $1.5bn cleanup operation – came to a head when readings were still not good enough to allow the race to go ahead as planned. Instead it was delayed by 24 hours.
Furore after triathlon postponement
Paris 2024 chiefs refused to apologise for the disruption and blamed weather and climate change for the issues around water quality. They also claimed the potential move to a duathlon downgrade would not be unfair on athletes.
Belgium’s Marten Van Riel was the first athlete to speak out on the subject on Tuesday, saying: “If the priority was the health of the athletes this event would have been moved to another location a long time ago. We are just puppets in a puppetshow.”
Later there was an even bigger voice weighing in, none other than 2021 Olympic champion Kristian Blummenfelt. The 30-year-old Norwegian, who finished 12th in Paris on Wednesday, was far from impressed by the way things played out.
Blummenfelt on Paris 2024 disruption
He told Norwegian outlet TV 2: “I feel that I have managed to focus well, and not let it affect my preparations in particular, and reset myself. But it is of course amateurish on the part of the IOC and World Triathlon that they do not have control over the track in an Olympics.
It is not a shock that the water is as it is. So it is of course bad that you don’t get to swim there beforehand, and how they change the competition day from what is planned.
We were actually supposed to compete yesterday or on Friday, now it will be today. It’s a bit amateurish in an Olympics. It’s a bit embarrassing on triathlon’s behalf.
Bu adds voice to criticism
Blummenfelt’s coach Olav Aleksander Bu backed up the criticism voiced by his athlete, claiming the event had placed style over substance.
“It is a very public-friendly track, but not a very athlete-friendly track. I hope it will be the last race with the kind of conditions we see today, because it is not okay to expose the athletes to the environment or other things that could potentially be negative for health. I hope it will be the last time.”
