Olympic Games Triathlon: Latest River Seine water quality update reveals what Paris 2024 needs to stage open water swims

Paris 2024 appears to be in a race against time and betting on “summer weather” as it bids to stage the planned Olympic Games triathlon swims in the River Seine next month.

Despite a €1.4bn (£1.18bn or $1.5bn) cleanup operation to make the iconic Paris waterway swimmable for the first time in a century, right now the water quality is not up to a sufficient standard to allow that.

Late last week, the results of recent tests on the water (carried out on June 16) showed the presence of two kinds of fecal bacteria, including E. coli. The results showed the levels of E. coli were too high to allow swimming at four different locations on the river.

World Triathlon responded by saying it has “great confidence” that the swims for the individual triathlon events on July 30 and 31, and the Mixed Relay on August 5, will all be able to take place as planned.

Paris bets on summer to save the swims

The latest update came on Wednesday (June 26), two days after a planned rehearsal of the opening ceremony – to be held in boats on the Seine – had to be postponed.

Marc Guillaume, prefect of the Île-de-France region, again referenced the heavy rains which have severely hampered the bid to make the water swimmable so far, and admitted that “summer weather” is required to improve water quality.

Guillaume told franceinfo that “the flow has dropped significantly since this weekend, and in July it will be a summer flow”, providing confidence that the opening ceremony will go ahead as planned in the Seine on July 26.

He revealed though that “to date, the conditions are not met for swimming in the Seine”, adding that despite all that massive investment “it is not enough if the weather is autumn or winter”.

Guillaume went on to admit: “The Seine will not be ‘bathable’ in a few days. We need summer atmospheric conditions to reach us”.

Triathletes swim in the River Seine during the Olympic Games Test Event in Paris in August 2023 (Photo – World Triathlon).

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Contingency plans

Of course there are contingency plans in place for the triathlon at Paris 2024, should water quality be an issue during the Games. But they do not completely rule out the looming spectre of the dreaded duathlon.

There are reserve days in place for all of the events, but if they were also to be affected by poor water quality, the race format would then be altered to an Olympic distance duathlon consisting of a 5km run, 40km bike and 10km run.

The Mixed Relay at last year’s Paris Test Event was reduced to a duathlon due to sub-standard water quality, with a similar story at World Triathlon Para Cup Paris.