After a final night meeting at 4 a.m. on Sunday August 6, it was necessary to face the facts: the quality of the Seine is not sufficient to guarantee the health of the athletes who must participate in a swimming event in water. free scheduled for the same day. The event was therefore postponed. This is a first major failure for the town hall of Paris and France, less than a year from the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Because this event, which counted for the World Cup, was a first test in the Olympic format for next summer. But the organizing committee, the City of Paris and the sports federations, among others, were forced to give up having the swimmers dive from the Alexandre III bridge, in the heart of the capital: the quality of the water was “below acceptable standards”, denounce the French Swimming Federation (FFN) and World Aquatics (the international federation).
While the latter said it was “disappointed that the quality of the water is leading to the cancellation of this World Cup”, the health of the athletes “must always be our first priority”, said Husain Al-Musallam, its president, quoted by the press release issued Sunday morning.
In question, the heavy rains that have fallen on Paris in recent days, overflowing the sewers and bringing wastewater into the river. Consequence: the presence rate of the bacterium Escherichia coli exceeds the limits imposed by World Aquatics, which must be less than 1000 CFU per 100 ml. The last water analysis 24 hours ago was 1300 CFU per 100ml.
The organizing committee, the City of Paris and the prefecture of the Île-de-France region explain themselves by highlighting the “exceptional” rainfall of the last few days. The prefecture had however issued a decree on July 27, based on 42 water test results from June and July, to authorize the competition in principle.
A new disappointment on this triathlon test which is held in ten days would be worrying for the organizers, but also for the City of Paris, whose mayor Anne Hidalgo promises future swimming in the Seine from 2025.
Expressing his “disappointment”, Pierre Rabadan, Sports Deputy of the Paris City Hall, explained that this cancellation of the pre-Olympic Games swimming test in the Seine, due to the pollution of the river, had “been played a few hours “.
“We will know tomorrow [Monday] if finally at time T [i.e. at the start of the competition scheduled for Sunday at 7:30 a.m.], the quality of the water was swimmable”, he said. added. “We have instantaneous readings, but which are not part of the analysis process of the international federation which tell us that to date, this morning, the quality of the water was good and the figure was below 1,000 “.
The rain scenario was feared by all the players, and several projects are underway to try to deal with this type of problem. Among the construction sites of the State and the communities, with a view to these bathings, there are in particular structures such as the Austerlitz basin, still under construction, which will make it possible to store rainwater (50,000 m3), and which will be in operation in 2024.
The international federation “understands that infrastructure projects will be completed and will provide a significant improvement in water quality for the Olympics next year”. World Aquatics says it remains “excited” to see swimmers take part in the race, right downtown.
Asked whether the Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (Cojo) was going to review its plans and plan a plan B for next year, Brigitte Légaré, head of competitions in Paris Center, explained that for this competition, which will be held towards the end of the Games on August 8 and 9, “a day” is planned to move them in case of problems. “With the historical episode that we just had, we will look at what we have put in place, if there are things that we can change, improve,” she added.
A plan B somewhere other than the Seine? “No, plan B is that we are going to swim in the Seine,” assured Brigitte Légaré. “I’m confident, […] we’ll get there. »
