Triathlon decides at 4am whether it will take place at 8am | Paris 2024 Olympics

Nessun was sleeping, orders Luciano Pavarotti to sing at the opening of the 2006 Turin Winter Games, and no one in the world of triathlon sleeps, expecting every minute the amount of enterococci and E. coli that pollute the water of the treacherous Seine after the rains. This Tuesday, the scheduled introductory sessions have been suspended again. On Wednesday, the 30th, at eight in the morning, the men’s test is scheduled (1,500 meters in waters with a strong current; 40 kilometers by bike through the streets of Paris and 10 kilometers of running on foot in the same area), but only four hours before it is dark, 3.30 in the morning, the final bacteriological tests will not be carried out to decide that swimming in those waters that flow under the Alexandre III bridge, where the exit pontoons are located, is not dangerous to health, with a flow of 360,000 liters per second at a speed of 1.4 kilometers per hour on the left bank and four per hour in the center. The athletes and the world will not be officially informed of their result until four o’clock.

“The question of whether they will compete does not affect their daily routine at all. This situation is not new. In almost all triathlons, not everything is confirmed until the last minute,” explains José Antonio Bodoque, the physiotherapist of the Spanish team. “They will act as if they were definitely going to compete. The daily program in Paris. They will have dinner at 7:30 p.m., go to bed early and get up at four, like every day.”

The contingency plan is that if swimming is not possible, the competition will take place on Friday, August 2, and if by then the heat, already scorching the docks on the coast, has not eliminated the excrement, a decision will be made to transform the triathlon into a duathlon (5,000 meters of running in the streets; 40 kilometers of cycling and 10,000 meters of running again on foot), a decision that leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the athletes. “We all want triathlon. Duathlon is a different sport,” says the voice of athlete Miriam Casilla from Badajoz, for whom Paris will be her third Olympic Games. “If swimming were suspended, it would be bad for everyone, although for some it could be of personal benefit, because it damages the image of triathlon. “In any case, health comes first.”

Athletes will remember the outbreak of gastroenteritis that struck at the World Cup in Sunderland, UK, last summer. More than 57 competitors fell ill after a swimming event at Roker Beach over the weekend of July 29 and 30. Athletes who developed symptoms complained of nausea and diarrhoea.

“The suspension of water is nothing new,” explains Antonio Serrat, Spain’s representative in the men’s event, “although not at this level.” It will be the first time that triathlon, an Olympic sport since Sydney 2000, cannot be held in its entirety. It is not so strange, however, that high-level triathlon is suspending a swim test due to pollution. Paris already had to suspend some test events last August, and the 2023 European Championships, which David Castro won in Madrid, were actually a duathlon, since the swim scheduled in Casa de Campo could not be held due to faecal pollution increased after a strong storm. that hit the capital.

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