Paralympic triathlon events postponed over Seine River’s poor water quality

Paralympic triathlon competitions in Paris scheduled for Sunday were postponed over concerns about water quality in the Seine River after heavy rainfall, organisers said.

The 11 paratriathlon events are now scheduled for Monday, if upcoming water testing allows, the Paris 2024 organising committee and World Triathlon said in a joint statement.

Rainstorms hit the French capital Friday and Saturday. Heavy rains cause wastewater and runoff to flow into the river, leading to a rise in bacteria levels, including E. coli.

“It rained a lot Friday, and then it also rained Saturday. So the international federation and the organising committee … out of precaution decided to delay all of the events for a day, probably until tomorrow,” Paris Deputy Mayor Pierre Rabadan told reporters on Sunday afternoon.

This is the second scheduled change for the paratriathlon events. They had initially been scheduled to take place over two days, Sunday and Monday, but were moved to Sunday because of rain forecasts.

The disruption is another hiccup for the city’s efforts to clean up the river for future public swimming, which had been one of Paris’s most ambitious promises ahead of hosting the Olympics and Paralympics this summer.

The men’s individual triathlon event during the Paris Olympics was delayed, and several test swims were cancelled because of high E. coli levels. But Rabadan said prospects for the Paralympic triathlons going ahead on Monday were looking up.

“I can’t tell you my exact level of confidence, because it doesn’t matter,” Rabadan said. “The scientific results matter, we will have it tomorrow, but the trend is actually positive to being able to have the competition tomorrow morning.”

Lazreg Benel-Hadj, vice president of the French Swimming Federation, said that while some of the 53 athletes who took part in Olympic swimming competitions in the Seine fell ill afterward, none of those illnesses were linked to the water quality in the Seine.

Four of them were triathletes who became sick in the days following their competition in August.

Authorities say athletic events in the river would continue past the Paralympics. “Yes, for sure, we will continue,” the Paris Deputy Mayor said.

“As I said before, we’ll continue to have competitions in the river. There are so many reasons for that. First because athletes are happy with that, and second because the quality of the water will permit it in the future. So we will keep going in that direction. And that’s a massive legacy of the Olympic games.”

Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century, in big part due to poor water quality.

Organisers of the just-concluded summer Olympics invested €1.3 billion to prepare the Seine for the Games.

Despite this, fluctuating bacteria were a constant concern throughout, due to the swimming portion of the triathlon and the marathon swimming events.