Olympic triathlon swimming leg could be cancelled over Seine water quality

The president of the Paris 2024 Olympics has admitted that the triathlon competition could be delayed, or the swimming leg even cancelled, if adverse weather conditions impact on water quality in the River Seine this summer.

Tony Estanguet stressed that he was proud that more than a billion Euros had been invested in a bid to provide safe swimming in the Seine for the first time in a century. However he conceded that the prospect of heavy rain raising E Coli levels was one of his “biggest challenges” for the Games, which start in just over 100 days.

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Estanguet’s comments came on a day where the Surfrider Foundation Europe charity warned of “alarming” bacteria levels in the Seine. It claimed that out of 14 samples taken at the Alexandre III Bridge over a six-month period, all but one showed poor water quality.

However, Ville de Paris and the Olympic organisers insist that the samples highlighted in this study were taken before the commissioning of major works aimed specifically at improving the quality of the water in the Seine, such as the Austerlitz basin, or the completion of the connection of 100% of barges to the sewerage system which they say will be completed within a few weeks.

The triathlon is one of Team GB’s strongest events, with the world champion Beth Potter and the Tokyo 2020 gold and silver medallist Alex Yee having won the women’s and men’s test event in Paris in 2023. However the mixed relay triathlon test event, the following day, had to be switched to a duathlon format with the swimming leg abandoned after the water quality in the Seine got worse.

Asked at the SportAccord conference in Birmingham specifically about the potential threat of E coli bacteria, Estanguet said: “We are working hard on it; you know it’s one of the bigger challenges.

“When we decided to have this competition in the Seine we knew it will be a big challenge but with the authorities, there is a big programme of investment and, when we talk about legacy, this project is fantastic.

“And we are still confident that the triathlon will be based in the Seine because we have contingency plans. We can postpone for rainy conditions. Because it’s programmed at the beginning of the Games we can wait for better conditions. So we are confident that it will be possible to use the Seine.”

However Estanguet, who was a three-times Olympic canoeing champion, admitted there was no alternative location if Paris was hit with particularly heavy rainfall. “We change the date and postpone from one day to three days until it’s OK,” he said. “And there is a final decision where we could not swim – it’s part of the rules of the International Federation. It’s what we want to avoid, of course.

“But there’s a risk. There’s always a risk. I was an athlete. I attended World Championships that were postponed because of floods. When you are in a sport where you rely on the natural conditions, you have to adapt. It’s part of the flexibility in my sport.”

Estanguet also said he was confident that having 45,000 police officers on duty and a special security cordon would allow a spectacular opening ceremony on the Seine to go ahead despite security concerns.

“You know, we started this project at the end of 2015, beginning of 2016, just after the massive attacks we had in France,” he said. “At that time, the authorities decided to defend what is important in France and the fact that it’s not because we have been attacked that we should stop with gathering people, defending liberty and the values important for France.”