Triathlon POSTPONED Due To Rising E.Coli Levels In Seine River

Daily Report July 30,2024

The men’s Olympic triathlon scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed because of water quality, the same problem plaguing rowing and sailing ahead Friday night.

The men’s triathlon will now be held on Wednesday instead, organizers said. The women’s competition is scheduled for Wednesday as well, but both events will be pending water quality tests. A second date has been set aside on Friday.

Meteo-France, the French weather service, has predicted storms for late Tuesday with light rain on Wednesday afternoon followed by more possible thunderstorms.

The level of E. coli and other bacteria in the Seine generally increases after heavy rains due to stormwater surges that flush poop from streets directly into the river.

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Triathletes at the training event swim parts of a course has been canceled on Sunday and again Monday due to water quality concerns.

“Despite the improvement on the water quality levels in the last hours, the readings at some points of the swim course are still above the acceptable limits,” organizers said in a statement announcing the postponement, stressing that their “priority is the health of the athletes.”

The high Wednesday is expected to reach about 95 F, possibly ending the competition at one of its hottest points. The schedule for the women’s race at 8 a.m. Wednesday remains unchanged.

City and organizing officials expressed surprise that the water quality did not improve as expected in recent days with clearer skies and higher temperatures after a series of pumps, tubes, and siphons already removed tons of trash.

The French capital has been campaigning to clean up water quality in the Seine, which was long renowned for being polluted. For the Olympics, France paid $1.5 billion in an effort to make the river swimmable.

The waters are tested for E. coli at least once per day. The monitoring group, Eau de Paris, releases numbers every Friday, but the data is only current through Tuesday.