(Bloomberg) -- Paris Olympic Games organizers postponed the men’s triathlon to Wednesday morning, citing insufficient water quality levels in the Seine river and delaying one of the Games’ flagship events.
The event, originally scheduled to take place at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, will now run on Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. local time, right after the women’s race, World Triathlon and Paris 2024 organizers said in a statement. The swimming portion of the triathlon is set to take place in the river that flows through the heart of the French capital.
Word that it was being postponed by 24 hours came at 3:41 am local time from the sport’s governing body World Triathlon. The athletes had received similar notices the two previous mornings letting them know water rehearsals had also been cancelled.
Athletes were already at breakfast when they got news of the postponement, Benjamin Maze, technical director of the French Triathlon Federation, said on Franceinfo radio. “When we got the information from the international federation, there was naturally a little bit of anger and a lot of disappointment,” Maze said. “But the key to top-level sport is adaptation.”
The weather forecast points to continued risks for the timing of the triathlon races. There is chance of storms on Tuesday night, the possibility of rain on Wednesday afternoon and thunderstorms on Thursday, according to Météo France.
The Games planners have been determined to make the river one of the stars of the Games, using it as the venue for a floating parade of athletes down the Seine and also planning the 10-kilometer (6.2 miles) swim events along the river. Those are planned for next week.
To make it safe for swimmers, authorities spent €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) on new infrastructure to clean up the river, given a streak of rainy days can lead the city’s sewage system to overflow, bringing waste water and bacteria into the Seine. The opening ceremony was hit by heavy rain on Friday that persisted well into Saturday evening.
The “priority is the health of the athletes,” Paris 2024 organizers stressed in the joint statement with World Triathlon. “Despite the improvement of water quality levels over the last hours, the readings at some points of the swim course are still above the acceptable limits.”
“We have absolutely no control over the weather or the quality of the water,” said Maze of the French Triathlon Federation. “On the other hand, we do have control over our readiness and over our state of mind.”
Ticket holders for the men’s triathlon will get a full refund, according to a spokesman for Paris 2024.
Sign up for Bloomberg’s Business of Sports newsletter for the context you need on the collision of power, money and sports.
--With assistance from Gillian Tan.
(Updates with details from statement in third paragraph)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
