Olympic triathlon tournaments got underway in Paris on Thursday morning, after levels of bacteria in the River Seine fell to low enough levels for the swimming leg of the contest to take place in its waters.
The women’s race kicked off at 8 a.m. local time after the Seine’s water were given the all-clear in the early hours of the morning.
As female Triathlon athletes hit the water, it marked the culmination of an ambitious €1.4B plan by the city of Paris to clean up the river’s notoriously polluted waters so that it could host key endurance swimming events during the Olympics.
Paris City Mayor Anne Hidalgo hopes the scheme will have the lasting legacy of allowing Parisians to swim in the Seine, which has been off-limits for bathers for the best part of a century.
In a bid to prove that the waters had been cleaned up to a sufficient level for the Olympic contests to take place she even took to the waters herself in the lead-up to the 2024 games.
Unseasonally heavy rains on the night of the opening ceremony on Friday (July 26) which continued into Saturday had pushed bacteria above unacceptable levels.
This led to the men’s race being postponed on Tuesday, giving rise to fears that the Triathlon would be reduced to a Duathlon instead.
The men’s race is now due to take place at 11.45 local time.
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