A test run intended to allow Olympic athletes to familiarize themselves with the marathon swimming course in the Seine River was canceled on Tuesday over concerns about water quality in Paris waterways.
Paris 2024 spokesperson Anne Descamps confirmed that World Aquatics made the decision to cancel the exercise.
The cancellation comes one day after the triathlon mixed relay the event was held in the river that runs through the center of the French capital. The section of the Seine where the triathletes swam is much shorter than the marathon swim course, which has races scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
Representatives from World Triathlon and the International Olympic Committee along with Paris Games organizers and regional and weather authorities met on Sunday evening to review water tests. The results indicated that the water quality at the triathlon site had improved in the previous hours and would be within the limits prescribed by World Triathlon on Monday morning, they said in a statement.
In a very close sprint finish, the team from Germany took the gold medal in the team relay on Monday, with the USA taking silver and Great Britain taking bronze.
The plan to hold the swimming part of the triathlon and marathon swimming competitions in the Seine was ambitious. Swimming in the river has, with a few exceptions, been prohibited since 1923 because it has been too toxic.
World Triathlon released data on Tuesday showing that when the triathletes swam on Monday, the levels of fecal bacteria E. coli and enterococci were within acceptable levels.
