Water quality concerns halt Paris Olympics swimming test in the Seine

Another Paris Olympics test run in the River Seine was cancelled on Saturday because of concerns about water quality, in a fresh blow to Games organisers and the city’s ambitions to reopen the river to public swimming.

Paratriathlon swimmers were in the Seine in competition on Thursday and Friday, but results of water quality tests showed “significant discrepancies” in the hours leading up to Saturday’s events, organisers said in a statement.

The competition was transformed into a duathlon of just running and cycling.

Water safety officials are trying to determine why two testing systems used for the river produced different results.

One indicated too-high levels of bacteria overnight, said Pierre-Antoine Molina, who oversees public policy for the Paris regional administration. Rainfall in recent days may have been a factor.

A previous test event had to be cancelled this month because heavy rain caused overflows of untreated waste in the Seine, leaving water quality below safety standards.

Rain also hit Paris ahead of Saturday’s cancellation.

Paris is spending massively on water-management projects that officials say will make pollution caused by storms less frequent.

Olympics organisers remain undeterred in their mission to hold open-air swimming events along the picturesque river, viewing this month’s cancellations as a learning experience.

The head of the Paris 2024 organising committee, Tony Estanguet, said a contingency plan will be in place next year to allow swimming events to be postponed for a few days if water quality is not up to standard.

But there is no plan B for moving the competition.

“We will remain in this extraordinary location, no matter what happens,” said Mr Estanguet, a three-time Olympic gold medallist in canoe slalom. ‘’We want to preserve this ambition.”

The plan for Olympic and Paralympic athletes to swim in the Seine dovetails with council efforts to clean up the long-murky waterway.

Paris has promised more transparency about its clean-up efforts than Rio de Janeiro, where concerns about sewage-contaminated water dogged the 2016 Olympics.

This week’s triathlon takes athletes and spectators to some of the French capital’s most striking views.

The swim starts from the bottom of the 19th-century Alexandre III bridge and its golden statues. The cycling and running laps go along the Champs-Elysees and through some prestigious neighbourhoods.

New tests will be conducted and a decision will be made early Sunday on whether Sunday’s swimming events can be held as scheduled, organisers said.