Olympic Triathlon Training Canceled Again Due to Seine River Pollution
Swimming in the Seine has been illegal for more than 100 years.
Published July 29 2024, 3:00 p.m. ET
A local resident swims in the Seine, in Paris on July 17, 2024, after the mayor of Paris swam in the river to demonstrate that it is clean enough to host the outdoor swimming events at the Paris Olympics.
The 2024 Olympics are taking place in Paris, France. As such, the gorgeous and historic city is trying to do something major to celebrate the event, and have been planning allow swimmers to compete in the Seine river. But, to get the river ready for the world's best athletes, officials had to work around the clock to get the river cleaned up and free of the pollution that has prohibited casual swimmers from taking a dip for more than 100 years.
Unfortunately, their efforts may have been for naught as Olympic officials have announced a second day of cancelations for triathlon training after pollution levels rose to unsafe levels thanks to several days of rain. Here's everything that we know about the Seine and whether swimmers will ever be able to compete in the storied waters.
Olympic triathlon training events have been canceled due to pollution.
CNN reported that rainstorms on Friday, July 26 — which pounded the capital city well into Saturday — were a contributing factor to the decision to call off training for the triathlon. This is because the additional wastewater runoff that entered the river over the weekend increased E. coli levels to above 1,000 CFU/100mL, which is what the World Triathlon considers safe.
That prompted officials to cancel the training session that was set to take place in the Seine on Monday, July 29. But, that doesn't mean that the city's 1.5 billion dollar cleanup has been for nothing. Olympic officials say they are confident that they'll be able to get swimmers into the water for events on Tuesday, July 30, thanks to Monday's bright and sunny forecast.
However, should that rosy outlook be wrong, the triathlon will not happen and instead the men's team — who are the ones slated to compete first in the river — will nix the swimming and opt to battle it out in a duathlon (just cycling and running).
Why is the Seine river so dirty?
According to Forbes, humans are to blame for the Seine's current state, as the river has long been a dumping ground for those living in and around the City of Light. And while some of that dumping has been intentional over the years — boats frequently pumped their sewage directly into the river in the past — some outdated infrastructure is also to blame. Old sewage pipes can cause humane waste to leak into the streets, which then gets washed straight down into the Seine during times of heavy rainfall.
This is of course separate from the threatened sewage issues that protesters planned to hit the rivers with earlier in the summer, when they said they would poop into the Seine before French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo were scheduled to take a dip in the water to prove its cleanliness. Fortunately for the politicians, those protests were called off before Hildalgo's swim actually took place.
What Olympic events are in the Seine?
Per TODAY, the Paris Olympics have scheduled a total of five swimming events in the Seine.
The men's and women's teams are supposed to complete the swimming portion of the triathlon in the water during the week of July 29.
Then, on August 8 and 9, the river is scheduled for for swimming marathons for women and men, respectively.
As of now it's unclear if officials have a backup plan for the August events. Everyone will just have to keep their fingers crossed that there's no more rain — and therefore no more increased levels of E. coli — heading into the Seine before everyone gets a chance to compete.
