JAKARTA - The first race to take place in the Seine River, the men's triathlon, was canceled just hours before starting on Tuesday, July 30, 2024.
The cancellation related to the quality of the last water shows unhealthy pollution levels.
The organizing committee announced that the postponement of the men's triathlon sport was only a few moments before 05.00 am local time.
"(The committee) Paris 2024 and World Triathlon reiterated that the health of the athletes is a priority," read an official statement after the meeting at 03.30 am Paris time.
The 2024 Olympic committee has canceled training sessions on the Sea River scheduled for July 28 and 29, 2024 due to levels of unsafe pollution due to last week's rain.
Previously, they had expressed confidence that the men's triathlon could be held on schedule. The 2024 Olympic Organizing Committee is optimistic that pollution will fall on time for Tuesday's race given the sunny and hot weather conditions in Paris this week. This is predicted to help keep bacteria levels low.
However, that's not the case. Before the race started at 08.00 am local time, the water quality was still not on a safe threshold.
Benjamin Maze, Technical Director of the French Triathlon Federation, said that there was a bit of anger from the participants.
"The athletes got up before 4 am. They were having breakfast when we received information from international federations. Obviously, there was a bit of anger and a lot of disappointment," Maze told FranceInfo radio.
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The organizing committee finally announced that the men's triathlon race was postponed 24 hours. The match was postponed and then scheduled for Wednesday, July 31, 2024, after the women's triathlon was completed.
The problem is, the storm threat on Tuesday night also raises doubts about the feasibility of organizing the men's and women's triathlon race on Wednesday.
"There is still a lot of uncertainty about the trajectory and intensity. We can't say anything for sure."
"If there is a storm at night that causes significant rainfall, it will have an impact on the quality of the water in the Seine River," Christophe Calas, a weather forecaster on duty at the organizing committee for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Shame
The postponement of the men's triathlon match on Tuesday is a shame for French authorities who have invested 1.4 billion euros over the past decade to clean up the Sea River.
One of the funds was spent on a large new water treatment and storage facility in and around Paris.
Heavy rains still flood the underground sewers and the city's disposal system, which causes unprocessed waste to be dumped into the waterways.
After a very wet spring and early summer, the Seaine River continued to fail water tests until early July 2024. E.Coli bacterial levels are sometimes 10 times higher than the permitted limits.
The organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympics have included flexibility in their schedule to postpone the triathlon race for several days. As a last resort, they said they would cancel the triathlon swimming and turn the race into duals by just running and cycling.
The Seane River will be used for a triathlon mixed relay on August 5, 2024 and a 10-kilometer marathon swimming in open waters on August 8-9, 2024.
However, marathon swimming can still be moved to another location in Vaires-sur-Marne, the Marne River, to the east of Paris.
Meanwhile, in early July 2024, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, swam in the Seine River along with the Head of the 2024 Paris Olympics Organizing Committee, Tony Estanguet, to show that the river is clean enough.
Anne Hidalgo plans to make three public bathhouses in the Seine River for Paris residents next year, a century after the ban on swimming in the river.
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