Olympic officials axed another day of swim training for triathletes in Paris’ River Seine after weekend showers contaminated the waterbody. This is the second consecutive day of cancellation, but officials are ‘confident’ that the Paris Olympics 2024 triathlon events will take place as scheduled from Tuesday, July 30.

Sunday’s ‘familiarisation’ training was abandoned for similar reasons, with officials reiterating ‘that the priority is the health of the athletes’.

“The tests carried out in the Seine [on Sunday] revealed water quality levels that, in the view of the international federation, World Triathlon, did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held,” Paris 2024 organizers and World Triathlon said in a joint statement on Monday. “This is due to rain that has fallen on Paris on 26 and 27 July.”

River Seine will host triathlon events starting on Tuesday, with the men’s individual triathlon, followed by the women’s individual event on Wednesday, and marathon swimming events in the second week of August. If the river’s quality does not meet the required standards by Tuesday, the organisers offer two built-in reserve days on August 2 and 3.

Open-water 10km swimming events are slated to take place on August 8 and 9 and can be moved to Vaires-sur-Marne on the Marne River if officials require it. The event will be converted into a duathlon, with swimming being canceled if the quality does not improve on the reserve days either.

“Given the weather forecast for the next 36 hours, Paris 2024 and World Triathlon are confident that water quality will return to below limits before the start of the triathlon competitions on 30 July,” organisers added in the official statement.

The drenched opening ceremony on Friday was followed by a soaked Saturday due toa intermittent and heavy rainfall in the city. Sunday finally brought a sigh of relief as the sun returned to the capital city. The quality of the river Seine depends on the amount of rainfall in Paris, and Friday’s downpour led to pollutants entering the river.

What's causing the problem?

On July 17, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo went for a swim in the river to squash fears regarding its quality and prove that it was clean enough to host events. Water quality tests were conducted daily in June, pointing toward unsafe E. coli bacteria levels. As the skies started opening in late June, the water quality also improved.

“The Seine is exquisite,” Hidalgo told the press after her swim. “The water is very, very good. It’s a little cool, but not so bad. Today was a dream and a testimony that we have achieved a lot of work.”

Parisians have been prohibited from swimming in the river for almost a century. In 2015, Olympic organizers invested $1.5 billion to clean the Seine and make it fit for the Olympics and the city of Paris after the games’ completion. The Seine hosted the Paris 2024 Opening ceremony on Friday as each country sailed along the river on boats.

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