Paralympics: More River Seine water quality concerns see para triathlon events moved at Paris 2024

Concerns over the water quality of the River Seine – which blighted the Olympics – mean that all the para triathlon events at the Paralympics will now take place on the same day, Sunday 1 September.

They had originally been split over two days – Sunday and Monday, with four wheelchair and visually impaired races scheduled for the latter.

But a meeting in Paris on Thursday morning, the day after the opening ceremony, has led to a change of plan.

‘High level of uncertainty’

A joint statement from Paris 2024 and World Triathlon explained the reasoning: “Following a meeting at 9.30AM on 29 August attended by representatives of World Triathlon, Paris 2024 and the relevant French authorities involved in monitoring the conditions of the Seine, Paris 2024 and World Triathlon have confirmed a revised schedule for the Para triathlon events at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

“All eleven medal events will now take place on 1 September, instead of across two days, on 1 and 2 September. This decision has been taken to provide athletes and coaches with as much certainty as possible.

“The latest weather forecast provided by Météo France indicates high level of uncertainty for the upcoming days, which could have an impact on the conditions of the Seine. The course of the swim remains unchanged. All the races on Sunday 1 will be broadcasted LIVE, as initially planned for both competition days.”

Para triathlon swim familiarisation day one Paris 2024 photo credit World Triathlon — The first swim familiarisation did take place [Photo credit: World Triathlon]

There had been some speculation that the strong currents in the River Seine could also be problematic so the clarification above that the swim course “remains unchanged” is significant from that perspective.

Contingency days in place

The statement continued: “Paris 2024 and World Triathlon will continue their daily monitoring of water quality and the flow of the current.

“After the successful swim familiarisation held on August 29, decisions to go ahead with familiarisation swims on 30 and 31 August, as well as the medal events on 1 September will be taken if possible at 7pm the day before, with the relevant information to be shared with the teams and all relevant stakeholders afterwards.

“Contingency days for all medal events remain September 2 and 3.”

All of which means a different scenario to the Olympics when the men’s individual race was postponed just four hours before – with a similarly tight time schedule for the go-ahead for both individual races.