An event at the Olympics has been cancelled after multiple swimmers dropped out of competitions at the Paris Games due to a polluted Seine river.
World Aquatics made the call to cancel marathon swimming familiarization on Tuesday in coordination with those putting on the Olympic Games.
The discovery and decision followed much criticism targeting Paris Games officials for using the filthy Seine as a venue for aquatic sports.
“Earlier today, World Aquatics made the decision to cancel the 6 August Marathon Swimming familiarization due to water quality concerns,” World Aquatics said in a statement.
Initially, the water’s cleanliness appeared to meet the sport’s standard.
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“The water quality review showed E. coli levels ranged rom 326 to 517 (considered ‘very good’ to ‘good’) at the four collection points taken on 5 August between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m.”
An additional measuring of pollutants found the river to be unsafe for humans.
“However,” World Aquatics’ statement continued,” Enterococci levels exceeded World Aquatics maximum thresholds during the morning review. The latest Enterococci samples (taken between 12:30 and 13:30 on 4 August) showed levels exceeding the maximum acceptable World Aquatics thresholds.”
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World Aquatics has cancelled the marathon swimming familiarisation over water quality concerns in the Seine.
Here is part of the statement: pic.twitter.com/pban2xtCbL
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) August 6, 2024
Should all events in the Seine be moved?
Despite the cancellation of this event, the official Olympic schedule still shows marathon swimming scheduled for the Seine later this week.
Over the weekend, multiple triathletes withdrew from Olympic competitions with severe stomach illnesses — some followed dips in the Parisian waterway.
Two Swiss Olympians and a Belgian competitor were forced to drop out of triathlon relay events. Belgium’s team had no choice but to forfeit after its athlete withdrew.
“While swimming under the bridge, I felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think about too much,” Jolien Vermeylen, a separate Belgian Olympian from the one that dropped out, said last Wednesday after exiting the Seine.
“We’ll know tomorrow if I’m sick or not,” she continued, acknowledging she swallowed some of the river water in the course of competition, noting it “doesn’t taste like Coca-Cola or Sprite, of course.”
Although the withdrawing athletes’ illnesses was not directly blamed on the river’s unsanitary conditions, it’s unusual for otherwise healthy Olympic swimmers to catch a crippling gastrointestinal infection after time spent in a filthy waterway.
The river, which winds its way through Paris, is often the final destination for the city’s trash as rain and other forces drive garbage into the water.
If officials are serious about athletes’ health and safety at the Paris Games, officials should keep swimmers out of the polluted Seine.
