Triathlon: training cancelled because the Seine is polluted. Another Olympic flop

One disaster follows another at the Paris Olympics, all thanks to the obstinacy of the French. Pollution in the Seine River forced the cancellation of Sunday’s proposed swim training for Olympic triathletes in Paris, as reported by the BBC.

A joint statement from Paris 2024 and the World Triathlon said tests showed the water quality was below an acceptable standard.

After testing in July, the Seine River had been deemed clean enough for swimming, but heavy rains in the French capital in the past 48 hours have seen the quality decline.

“The priority is the health of the athletes,” the statement read. “Tests carried out in the Seine [Saturday] revealed water quality levels that, according to the International World Triathlon Federation, did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to take place.

“Given the weather forecast for the next 48 hours, Paris 2024 and World Triathlon are confident that the water quality will return to below limits before the start of the triathlon competitions (on July 30).”

If water quality does not reach the required standard, triathlon events could be postponed a few days or moved to Vaires-sur-Marne, on the Marne River east of Paris, which is much cleaner.

There is a risk of a flop because of the stubbornness of the French.

The Seine had not been swimmable for more than a century because of urban discharges that were not exactly controlled. In the 1900 edition of the Olympics, also organized in Paris, some competitions were actually held in the river, but at that time there was much less urbanization and, paradoxically, much cleaner discharges, for economic reasons: human excreta was much sought after as manure in the fields, so there was great care in filtering.

Now, because of the stubbornness of the Macron government and the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo (a socialist), who wanted to show the results of their environmentalist efforts, they still wanted to hold these races in the city section of the river, with the attendant risks of catching some disease, perhaps related to Escheritia coli, and putting the races at the mercy of the weather situation: if it rains, the waters are more abundant and therefore more bacteria will leach out, and you will be within the limits.

Other, cleaner rivers, such as the Marne, could have been used, but Macron and Hidalgo would not have been able to do their own environmentalist preaching.