2023-08-04 16:13:42
The heavy and persistent rains that have been hitting Paris in recent weeks could derail a swimming test event for the 2024 Olympics, scheduled to take place this weekend. This Friday (04), the training for the test was canceled and the authorities discuss the pollution of the Seine River and the climate.
Published on: 08/04/2023 – 16:13
3 min
Nearly 104 millimeters of rain fell, often as a tropical storm, between July 20 and early August, according to the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region. And this is precisely the scenario most feared by the organizers: heavy rains that cause the sewers to overflow and even contaminate the waters of the Seine.
“After the recent rains in Paris, the quality of the water of the Seine is below acceptable standards to protect the health of swimmers”, explained Thursday night the French Swimming Federation (FFN), which met with the federation World Aquatics and “public health partners” and by mutual agreement decided to cancel the training session.
This World Cup open water swimming event, scheduled to take place on Saturday for women and Sunday for men, between the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont de l’Alma is, above all, a test for the Paris Olympics, in a year.
Analysis for the presence of intestinal bacteria
The organizing committee of the Olympic Games, the prefecture of Paris, the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region, sports federations, among others, have been analyzing water samples and the weather forecast for days.
A meeting is scheduled for this Friday, which should be followed by a statement from the international and national swimming federations. Other options are being considered: holding the test on Saturday, canceling it, or even waiting for new results that could be analyzed overnight from Friday to Saturday.
The “temporary degradation of water quality”, according to the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region, raises the index most considered by specialists, that of the presence of the intestinal bacteria Escherichia coli. World Aquatics imposes a rate of less than 1000 CFU per 100 ml for this bacteria in order for the competition to take place.
On July 27th, based on 42 samples from June and July, the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region authorized this weekend’s competition, as well as that of the triathlon, which takes place between August 17th and 20th, whose swimming stage must be played on the Seine.
“Work completed in the coming months”
On Thursday night, the organizing committee of the Olympic Games, the city of Paris and the city of the Ile-de-France region assured, in a joint statement, that “one year before the Games, the dynamics of sanitation continues with the completion of the most significant works to improve water quality in the coming months, in particular to face these events of exceptional weather conditions”.
These competitions on the Seine are also the beginning of a project that allows bathing in the river, promised for 2025 by the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo (PS), in three locations. Diving into the Seine River has been banned since 1923.
For this, works are being carried out such as the Austerlitz basin, still under construction, which will store rainwater (50,000 m3), and which is expected to operate in 2024.
Olympic sport since 2008, open water swimming frequent debates. In Tokyo, at the end of the 2019 test event, swimmers protested the water quality of Tokyo Bay, which was also overheating. Already at the Rio Olympics, in 2016, the prospect of swimming in Guanabara Bay, also very polluted, made headlines.
(With information from AFP)
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