PARIS — Paralympic triathlon competitions scheduled for Sunday in Paris have been postponed by one day due to concerns about water quality in the Seine River after heavy rain, organizers said.
All 11 para-triathlon events are now scheduled for Monday, the Paris 2024 organising committee and World Triathlon said in a joint statement.
Torrential rains hit the French capital on Friday and Saturday. The heavy rains caused sewage and runoff to flow into the river, causing a spike in bacteria levels, including E. Coli.
“It rained a lot on Friday and it also rained on Saturday. The international federation and the organising committee (…) have therefore decided, as a precautionary measure, to postpone all the events by one day,” Paris deputy mayor Pierre Rabadan told the press.
As organizers await new test results, Rabadan said, “the trend is actually positive to be able to hold the competition tomorrow morning.”
Late Sunday night, organizers confirmed that the races would go ahead on Monday, saying in a statement that new water testing and monitoring results “indicate that water quality continues to improve and will be within World Triathlon thresholds on race day.”
This is the second change to the schedule for the para-triathlon events. They were originally scheduled to take place over two days, Sunday and Monday, but were postponed to Sunday due to rain forecasts.
The disruption comes as a setback to the city’s efforts to clean up the river for future public swimming, one of Paris’s most ambitious promises ahead of hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. The men’s individual triathlon event at the Paris Olympics was delayed and several swim tests were canceled due to high levels of E. coli after storms.
Lazreg Benel-Hadj, vice-president of the French Swimming Federation, said that while some of the 53 athletes who participated in the Olympic swimming competitions in the Seine River subsequently fell ill, none of these illnesses “were linked to the water in the Seine.”
Rabadan reiterated that sporting events in the river would continue after the Paralympics.
“Yes, for sure, we will continue,” he said. “We will continue to hold competitions in the river. There are so many reasons for that. One is that the athletes are happy with it, and the second is that the water quality will allow it in the future. So we will continue in that way. And that is a huge legacy of the Games.”
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