2023-08-16 20:02:00
Two weeks after the cancellation of the open water events, due to the poor quality of the Seine, it is the turn of the triathletes to dive for their “test event” from Thursday.
By Nathan Joubioux for Le Point The triathlon Test Event takes place in the Seine from Thursday August 17th to Sunday August 20th. (Illustrative image) © BERTRAND GUAY / AFP Published on 08/16/2023 at 8:02 p.m.
“Swimming in the Seine, I prefer to warn everyone, there is much worse”. Vincent Luis, one of the leaders of the French triathlon team, is not worried on the eve of having to dive into the Seine. One year before the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the triathlon “test event”, which begins this Thursday August 17 with the girls’ event and will run until Sunday August 20, is a real life-size rehearsal. The quality of the water and the risks of pollution do not worry the athletes. “There is much worse than the Seine”, he adds, on RMC Sport.
This event comes less than two weeks after the cancellation of the test event for the open water swimming events, scheduled for Saturday August 5 and Sunday August 6. This decision, taken by the International Olympic Committee and the organizers of the Paris Olympics, was justified by the poor quality of the water, “below acceptable standards”. In question, the heavy rains that had fallen on Paris, overflowing the sewers and bringing waste water into the river.
“We decide to trust”
Despite this first failure, the triathletes all say they are confident and are just waiting for the start of their competition. “I think there are much worse places where I have been able to swim before, but we did not necessarily say so”, explained Cassandre Beaugrand, who tried to find an explanation for this over-mediatization: “People make it maybe also crates because swimming in the Seine is an event. […] We are a bit of guinea pigs, but it’s exciting too.
READ ALSOParis 2024 Olympics: how to become a bearer of the Olympic flameSame story for Léo Bergère, world champion 2022. “It is a subject, it is sure that we are slightly concerned […]. But now, we decide to trust. Also because we have no other choice”.
As a good regular, he says he understands the difficulties that the organizers can encounter and wants to be “tolerant”. “We are still used to swimming in big cities with all the complexity that brings”.
“We are not in sugar”
Cleaning up the Seine is now the job of the municipality and the organizers. 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.
Failing at this task is therefore not an option, because the organizing committee of the Olympic Games does not provide for a plan B. Brigitte Légaré, head of competitions in Paris Center, had explained that “a day” is planned to shift the tests in case of problem.
READ ALSOSwimming in open waters in the Seine: “The competition could have been held”Something to reassure triathletes, like Vincent Luis, who continues by referring to his past experience: “There is much worse than the Seine. And I’m still here, still in one piece and still alive. Now, we are a bit all suspended from the authorities waiting for the results ”. But if the green light is given, he will go without hesitation. “I swam in places where there weren’t even any analyses. And we were going. We are not in sugar”.
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