Tuesday’s men’s race has been moved to Wednesday but thunderstorm forecast looms over the event.
Paris 2024 officials postponed the men’s Olympic triathlon because athlete health concerns Tuesday morning less than five hours before the event was supposed to start with the swim in River Seine.
The decision was made after a 3:30 a.m. (local time) meeting between Paris 2024, the International Olympic Committee, World Triathlon, City of Paris and Meteo Paris officials during which local health officials revealed that tests revealed dangerous levels of bacteria such as E.coli.
“Tests carried out in the Seine today revealed water quality levels that did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held,” Paris 2024 officials said in official communication later Tuesday.
“We’re living in the 21st century where, unfortunately, there are far more meteorological events that happen that are beyond the control of the organizers,” Aurélie Merle, the Paris 2024 director of sports, said. “We’ve seen that we go from heavy rain to extreme heat like today in very few days. So it’s actually hard to control how it can affect the quality of a river.”
The postponement is an embarrassing setback for Paris officials who had promoted a cleaned up Seine as a centerpiece of what they and the IOC had described as the most environmentally friendly Games in Olympic history.
