Olympic triathlon takes place after men's event postponed due to Seine water quality levels

The River Seine has been deemed clean enough to hold the men’s and women’s Olympic triathlon today (Wednesday) after officials postponed the men’s event due to elevated bacteria levels in the water.

Paris 2024 confirmed the decision in the early hours of Wednesday morning, following a meeting on the water quality which took place at 3.30am local time. “The results of the latest water analyses, received at 3.20am, have been assessed as compliant by World Triathlon allowing for the triathlon competitions to take place,” a Paris 2024 statement read. The women’s event started at 7am local time, with the men due to begin at 9.45am.

The men’s event, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was to be moved to Wednesday — following the women’s triathlon on the same day — if conditions improved. Training sessions in the Seine were canceled on Sunday and Monday when organizers deemed pollution levels too high.

“We will swim,” World Triathlon said in a post on X in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

We will swim 😤 pic.twitter.com/fJR5UVpn2B

— World Triathlon (@worldtriathlon) July 31, 2024

Every morning at 3:30 a.m., Paris 2024, the DRIEAT, which is the regional environmental agency, the City of Paris and the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region are involved in carrying out water quality tests. They relay the results to the technical and medical officials with World Triathlon and World Aquatics.

“Following a meeting on water quality held on 30 July at 3:30am … Paris 2024 and World Triathlon have made the decision to postpone the men’s triathlon event which was due to be held on 30 July at 8am,” a joint statement Tuesday from Paris 2024 organizers and the sport’s governing body said.

Friday was previously set to be a contingency day for any further issues, and World Triathlon said the event could be reduced to a duathlon (bike and run) if swimming was not safely possible.

The recent spike in E. coli levels in the river could largely be traced to heavy rain around the city in recent days, which hampered Friday’s opening ceremony. Organizers hoped warm and sunny conditions could lower the E. coli and enterococci concentration levels and salvage race plans.

The Seine’s water quality has been an ongoing storyline ahead of and during the Paris Olympics, as many resources, including billions of dollars of technology, have been poured into making the river suitable for competition. The Seine had previously been illegal to swim in since 1923.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo swam in the river on July 17, fulfilling her promise to jump in and showcase the water’s cleanliness ahead of the Games.

One American triathlete, Seth Rider, said he turned to the unconventional measure of not washing his hands after using the bathroom to increase his E. coli threshold in preparation for swimming in the Seine.

“We know that there’s going to be some E. coli exposure, so I just try to increase my E. coli threshold by exposing myself to a bit of E. coli in your day-to-day life,” he said.

Fellow American triathlete Taylor Spivey said Saturday: “Hopefully we get a swim, bike and run, because I don’t swim this much to just run and bike.”

The Seine is also scheduled to host the mixed team relay event on Aug. 5 and the marathon swimming races (6.2 miles) on Aug. 8 and Aug. 9 before the Para-triathlon is set to take place there Sept. 1-2.

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(Photo: Martin Bureau/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)