Bacteria pollution in River Seine forces Olympic triathlon postponement

PARIS  – Officials postponed the men’s Olympic triathlon because of athlete health concerns Tuesday morning less than five hours before the event was supposed to start with the swim in River Seine.

The decision was made after a 3:30 a.m. (local time) meeting between Paris 2024, the International Olympic Committee, World Triathlon, City of Paris and Meteo Paris officials during which local health officials revealed that tests revealed dangerous levels of bacteria such as E.coli.

“Tests carried out in the Seine today revealed water quality levels that did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held,” Paris 2024 officials said in official communication later Tuesday.

“We’re living in the 21st century where, unfortunately, there are far more meteorological events that happen that are beyond the control of the organizers,” Aurélie Merle, the Paris 2024 director of sports, said. “We’ve seen that we go from heavy rain to extreme heat like today in very few days. So it’s actually hard to control how it can affect the quality of a river.”

The postponement is an embarrassing setback for Paris officials who had promoted a cleaned-up Seine as a centerpiece of what they and the IOC had described as the most environmentally friendly Games in Olympic history.

France spent $1.5 billion on a nine-year cleanup of the Seine which had been closed to swimmers for 100 years because of the flow of industrial waste and sewage into the river.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo in particular was champion of the Seine clean up. Hidalgo was supposed to swim in the Seine on June 23 as a sign of confidence in the cleanliness of the river only to have the event scrapped because of high bacteria levels. A June 30 swim was postponed again, this time because of France’s snap election.

Hidalgo finally got to take the plunge on July 17, pronouncing the Seine “exquisite.”

“The water is very, very good,” the mayor said. “A little cool, but not so bad.’’

But local and IOC and international sports officials remain concerned that heavy rains could once again raise bacteria in the river to unsafe levels jeopardizing the marathon swimming and triathlon competitions. Sure enough, Paris received a downpour during last Friday’s opening ceremony.

“Unfortunately, meteorological events beyond our control, such as the rain which fell over Paris on 26 and 27 July, can alter water quality and compel us to reschedule the event for health reasons. Despite the improvement of water quality levels over the last hours, the readings at some points of the swim course are still above the acceptable limits,” Paris officials said in the communication. Officials had earlier canceled practice swims for the triathletes on Sunday and Monday. Water samples are taken 21 1/2 hours before race decisions have to be made, according to Merle, raising further concerns about the race day water conditions.

Athletes and their coaches were informed of Tuesday’s postponement just as they were waking up.

“The athletes got up a bit before 4 am, they were having breakfast when we received the information from the international federation,” Bernard Maze, the France Triathlon Federation’s technical director, told FranceInfo radio. “Obviously, there’s a bit of anger and a lot of disappointment.”

The men’s race was moved to 10:45 a.m. (local time), shortly after the completion of the women’s race which is scheduled to start at 8 a.m.

“Both triathlons are subject to the forthcoming water tests complying with the established World Triathlon thresholds for swimming,” Paris 2024 officials said.

But both races were threatened by forecasts of thunderstorms for the Paris area later Tuesday.