Paris Olympics 2024: High bacteria levels in River Seine force organisers to postpone triathlon event

The men’s triathlon event at the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024 has been postponed due to high pollution levels in the River Seine.

Heavy rains over the past few days have dirtied the river and the organisers found high levels of bacteria in the River Seine, forcing the postponement.

The men’s triathlon event will now take place on Wednesday afternoon (IST) and is scheduled to take place after the women’s triathlon, scheduled in the morning on the same day.

The organisers are confident of the water levels improving but if the races do not happen by Friday, the athletes will compete in a duathlon, instead of a triathlon, with the swimming leg being scrapped.

The mixed triathlon relay is scheduled for August 5, with a reserve day on August 6.

French authorities, along with the organisers of the Paris Olympics 2024, have spent more than 1.4 billion Euros to clean the River Seine, which otherwise has a lot of sewage and industrial spillage.

The water quality in the River Seine usually varies from day to day and authorities hope more rain does not play spoilsport in the organisers’ contingency plans.

Rainwater causes a lot of infection-causing bacteria like E.Coli and enterococci, giving a threat to athletes.

Athletes, like some in the United States, expose themselves to a lot of E.Coli bacteria to increase their threshold, should there be a threat of infection.

In the triathlon event, athletes will start from the Alexandre III bridge, race past the Musee d’Orsay and Grand Palais on the bike and run elements before returning to the Alexandre III bridge.

There was a lot of chatter about how polluted the River Seine was and how the authorities haven’t cleaned the river as much as they should. To counter all claims, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a swim in the River Seine days before the Paris Olympics commenced in a bid to show the world how clean the river was.