Organizers have given the green light for the triathlon events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to proceed on Wednesday after the recent water tests confirmed the Seine River to be safe for swimming.
Paris 2024 organizers, World Triathlon representatives, the City of Paris, and the Prefecture of the Île-de-France Region held a meeting earlier in the day and determined that “the women’s and men’s triathlons will go ahead as planned.”
The women’s triathlon began at 8 a.m., with 55 triathletes from 34 countries diving into the Seine River from a floating pontoon next to the Pont Alexandre III.
France’s Cassandre Beaugran won the gold medal, while Switzerland’s Julie Derron took the silver medal, and Britain’s Beth Potter got the bronze.
World Triathlon previously said that the Seine River had been affected by the rain that fell over Paris on July 26 and 27. This altered the water quality in the river, forcing organizers to reschedule the competitions “for health reasons.”
The organizers’ approval for the triathlon events to proceed on Wednesday brought relief to athletes and Paris authorities, who have worked to clean up the Seine River in the months leading up to the 2024 Olympics.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera took a dive into the Seine River last month to show that the waterway was clean enough to host swimming competitions amid concerns over the river’s pollution levels.
Swimming in the Seine River has been banned for over a century. Since 2015, organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare the river for the Olympics and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the Games.
The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants. Results in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria.
