While World Triathlon is already weighed down by intense criticism for basically insisting against its better judgment that the Olympic triathlons would take place, there is now additional cause for concern. According to the most recent weather forecasts, bad weather is already arriving in Paris starting tonight, including quite a bit of rain, and that would only worsen the water quality of the Seine.
That water quality is crucial, as an excessive concentration of pathogenic bacteria caused the first Olympic triathlon to be moved to tomorrow – just a few hours before the men’s race was to take place, this decision was being made. According to the most current schedule, both the women’s and men’s races now take place on Tuesday, July 31: the women kick off at 8:00 a.m. CEST and the men follow at 10:45 a.m. CEST.
But, when Paris will face some heavy rains, the water quality of the Seine will only worsen. This is because the sewers of Paris overflow during heavy rains and then empty into the world-famous river.
Tomorrow around 4:30 a.m. CEST – again just a few hours before the first scheduled start – the results of the new water tests will be released. Based on those results, it will be decided whether the Olympic triathlons will take place tomorrow. An alternative scenario is that both races are being postpones again, this time to Friday, Aug. 2. A duathlon format is also still a possibility.
It seems highly unlikely that the water quality of the Seine, which has been unsafe to swim in for more than a hundred years, will suddenly be ok tomorrow. Diseases are feared by many top athletes anyway, and many of them spoke out on social media today that they find World Triathlon’s attitude reprehensible, to say the least.
