Organisers of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics have canceled a triathlon swim training session scheduled for Monday in the Seine River after recent heavy rains affected the river’s water quality.
Sunday’s training session was cancelled after tests on the Seine River on Saturday showed water quality did not meet required standards. There were no changes to the running and cycling sessions.
“Given the weather forecast for the next 36 hours, Paris 2024 and the World Triathlon Federation are confident that water quality will return to the required levels before the start of the triathlon on 30 July,” the organisers said in a statement today.
France has spent about $1.4 billion on projects to improve river water quality to make it suitable for swimming during and after the Olympics, and the capital city announced that three swimming spots will be open to the public by June next year.
The men’s triathlon swim is scheduled to begin Tuesday morning near the Alexander III Bridge, with the women’s race the following day. It will be the first time the Games have been held on a river since 1900.
Meanwhile, high-speed rail traffic in France returned to normal on Monday after three days of vandalism at train stations ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony, according to French Transport Minister Patrice Bergrier.
“I can confirm that this morning (Monday) all trains are running again,” Bergrier told French radio RTL, although the perpetrators of the three attacks targeting strategic points in the rail infrastructure on Friday remain unknown.
The French minister said the attacks had brought the movement of 800,000 people to a standstill, with 100,000 having to cancel journeys, adding that the attacks would cost France’s state-owned rail company “huge sums”.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said Paris “has suspicions that far-left extremists were behind the sabotage last week targeting the rail network run by the national railway company.”
Before dawn on Friday, saboteurs attacked France’s high-speed rail network, striking signals and cables at key points, disrupting trains.
“We have identified several people,” Darmanin told France 2 television as part of the search for Vandal. He added that Vandal’s style had the characteristics of a far-left extremist, but gave no examples.
