Tuesday’s postponement of the men’s triathlon at the Paris Olympics has long been feared – not least on these pages – but Paris chiefs at the IOC’s regular daily media briefing [embedded below] have defended the decisions made so far.
The men’s race should have started at 8am local time, with the athletes diving into the River Seine, but for the third day running the water quality – or more specifically the E. coli bacteria readings – were not an an acceptable level.
It’s been a long-running saga despite a reported €1.4bn (£1.18bn or $1.5bn) being been spent on cleaning up the iconic Seine in the hope of making it swimmable for the general public for the first time in a century.
‘We all feel extremely proud’
But of the four readings taken the day before the race, the IOC briefing revealed three were over the limit, albeit two of them marginally so.
And speaking to the press Aurélie Merle, the Executive Director of Sports for Paris 2024, blamed the rain that fell at the opening ceremony on Friday and the first full day of competition on Saturday.
She said: “There are unfortunate meteorological events outside of our control. The amount of water that has fallen on Friday and Saturday has been humungous and it’s taking time for the river to go back to normal.
“We had the equivalent of July’s rainfall in just 36 hours – 25mm.”
And she insisted the organisers are “proud” of the work that has been done to try to make the Seine swimmable after the Games.
“So much hard work has been put in ensuring that we could give back the Seine to the Parisians which I think is an amazing message.
“[So] otherwise the project is still very strong and when we see the impacts of the quality and the legacy that we can leave, we all feel extremely proud of what has been done so far.”
Duathlon ‘not unfair’
But triathlon is in real danger of suffering badly from the situation, especially if the format is downgraded to a duathlon.
However Marisol Casado, the President of World Triathlon, not only attributed many of the issues triathlon has faced recently to climate change but also suggested that if the events end up being the dreaded duathlons on Friday then that is “not unfair” to certain athletes, such as those who excel in the water.
Unlike marathon swimming in Paris which is also planning to use the Seine but has rowing venue at Vaires-sur-Marne in reserve, there is no fallback for triathlon.
So if Wednesday’s races – the women at 8am and the men at 10.45am – can’t take place then Friday 2 August is the last reserve day. And if the water quality is still not acceptable by then, the swim will be replaced by an extra 5km run.
Asked if that is unfair to some of the stronger swimmers, Casado responded: “If [it’s] a duathlon, it’s the same conditions for everyone. This is an adaptation.”
Duathlon ‘a last resort’
And referencing an increasing number of top-level triathlons reverting to duathlons in recent years she added: “In the last five years especially, unfortunately we have had to change to duathlon [rather than] cancel the event.
“Because if we cancel events there are no medals, no prizemoney etc.
“This is part of our adaptation to the climate change that we are facing.
“In some cases we have waves that are too high, in other moments we have an electrical storm just half an hour before the race [WTCS Abu Dhabi was cancelled at the last minute earlier this year].
“But I don’t think it’s unfair, it’s just another situation of the competition.”
The real problem for triathlon at these Games though is the lack of a contingency venue, unlike the marathon swimming.
And when that was put to Merle, she justified it as follows: “The difference [in marathon swimming] was either you swim or you don’t.
“In the triathlon, you have the opportunity – which is a last resort – to move to a duathlon.”
There is also the Mixed Team Relay to come on Monday 5 August – the Test Event for that last August became a duathlon because of the water quality.
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