Olympic Games 2024: Seine open water training canceled due to pollution

Disappointment for open water swimming in the Seine: the training session scheduled for Friday morning for the international event to be held this weekend has been canceled due to pollution of the river due to heavy rains.

"Following recent heavy rains in Paris, the water quality of the Seine is currently below acceptable standards for safeguarding the health of swimmers," said the French Swimming Federation (FFN) in a press release. . The decision to “cancel” this training was taken in concert with the international federation World Aquatics and “public health partners”. At this point, only the workout is cancelled.

The holding of the open water swimming World Cup event, the women on Saturday and the men on Sunday, will depend in particular on the latest water analyzes (24 hours before each time) and the weather forecast.

This event is a "test event", that is to say a rehearsal both for the swimmers, but also for the organizers of the Paris Olympics because the Olympic event will be identical next summer in the heart of Paris, ten km swum in loops between the Alexandre III bridge and the Alma bridge.

But Ile-de-France has been experiencing daily rains for a week, more or less intense, a black scenario for the organizers because they know that intense rains can degrade the quality of the water in the river by bringing waste water back into it. . The results of water analyzes notably look for the presence of the famous bacterium Escherichia Coli and enterococci.

It rained in Paris "four times more than the average over the past 20 years", according to the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region, which reported Thursday afternoon of a "temporary deterioration in the quality of water".

For the Olympic Games, the organizers have long planned to be able to postpone the events by two or three days, in the event of thunderstorms and heavy rain.

"One year from the Games, the sanitation dynamic continues with the completion of the most significant work to improve water quality in the coming months, in particular to deal with these exceptional weather events", reacted Thursday evening in a joint press release the organizing committee of the Olympic Games (Cojo), the town hall of Paris and the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region.

Another test event is due to take place soon, that of the triathlon (August 17-20), the swimming part of which is to be held in the Seine. These competitions in the Seine are preludes to future swimming promised for 2025 by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo (PS), on three sites while swimming has been prohibited there since 1923.