With just over one month remaining until the Seine River hosts open water swimming and triathlon events at the Olympics, the scenic Paris waterway tested for unsafe levels of E. coli in four different areas for the third week in a row.
E. coli levels were 10 times above acceptable limits on June 18 after another month of heavy rainfall sent untreated sewage into the Seine River. With the nearby Yonne River also flooding, the current flow of the Seine is around four to five times higher than averages in years prior.
One of the major features of France’s $1.5 billion clean-up effort is a 50,000 cubic meter reservoir that finally operated for the first time on June 18 and 19. The water tank prevented 40,000 cubic meters of wastewater from entering the Seine.
Paris 2024 organizers insist that the Seine will be safe for competition with drier weather in the forecast for July. They still have not released a backup location to the public, despite calls for a contingency plan from reigning 10km Olympic champion Ana Marcela Cunha.
“By the second half of July, things should settle down,” Paris 2024 organizing committee chief Tony Estanguet said.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo recently postponed plans to swim in the Seine on Sunday, instead rescheduling for July 14. French president Emmanuel Macron also committed to take a dip in the Seine. Swimming in the river has been banned for over a century since 1923, but it is slated to reopen to the public at certain sites beginning in 2025.
The individual triathlon races are scheduled for July 30 and 31 with the mixed relay on August 5. There is less flexibility for the open water swimming events, slated for August 8 and 9. The triathlon international federation could also rule to shorten the triathlon to a duathlon.
Last summer’s test events in the Seine were cancelled due to poor water quality, which officials later attributed to a faulty sewer valve upstream.
