There are serious question marks over whether the Seine can host swimming and triathlon events at next summer’s Olympics in Paris after a test event was cancelled on Sunday due to pollution.
The Seine river is due to play a major role at the 2024 Games, with a €1.4billion (£1.2bn) clean-up operation in progress to ensure it can host triathlon and swimming events.
With few exceptions, swimming has been banned in the Seine since 1923 due to the poor quality of the water but this weekend’s Open Water Swimming World Cup was due to be the first major event held there in a century.
However, heavy rainfall in Paris caused water quality to dip below health standards and forced Friday’s training session to be cancelled, with the men’s and women’s 10km races postponed until Sunday.
Now both races have been cancelled, prompting fears over the suitability of the Seine for next summer’s Olympics, while World Aquatics say ‘further work is needed’ to ensure the river is up to standard.
‘World Aquatics is disappointed that water quality in the Seine has resulted in the cancellation of the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup, but the health of our athletes must always be our top priority,’ said the body’s president Husain Al-Musallam.
‘World Aquatics understands that further infrastructure projects will be completed to significantly improve water quality in the Seine in the lead-up to next year’s Olympic Games.
‘World Aquatics remains excited at the prospect of city-centre Olympic racing for the world’s best open water swimmers next summer.
‘Based on this weekend, it is clear that further work is needed with Paris 2024 and local authorities to ensure robust contingency plans are in place for next year.’
Although extensive work has been undertaken to make the Seine swimmable again – just as it was during the 1900 Olympics in Paris – heavy rain remains a problem.
It causes the Parisian sewage system to overflow and be discharged into the river, polluting it with fecal bacteria E.coli and Enterococcus.
A new underground overflow basin currently in construction should prevent contamination going forward and is expected to be completed before the Olympics kicks off next summer.
Organisers will be hoping for more favourable weather over the next fortnight, with another test event – this time the triathlon – scheduled for August 16 to 20.
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