Paris Olympics 2024: Triathletes to miss training sessions as Seine water quality goes poor

Paris Olympics 2024 have begun but the organizing committee is in big trouble. River Seine, situated at the heart of the city, has made headlines again due to the quality of its water having gone poor again for the 2nd time in the same month.

Due to the poor water quality, the participants for the Trialtheltes event at the Paris Olympics 2024 will miss out on their training session on Sunday.

“The rain that has fallen on Paris over the last 24 hours is likely to impact the quality of the water in the Seine over the next 24 to 36 hours,” a Paris spokesperson said on the current situation.

The spokesperson also mentioned that with the current water level of the river and the weather conditions expected in the next 24 hours, there is a high possibility that the training program for the Triathletes will be cancelled. The final decision will be taken at 4 am in a meeting on July 28.

For Triathletes, a two-day practice is scheduled to take place before the final event. The practice is scheduled to take place on Sunday and Monday. However, dark clouds of rain have started looming over the schedule and now the final decision hangs in the air.

For more than 100 years, swimming was banned in River Seine. However, since 2015, the organizing committee of the Paris Olympics 2024 has invested more than £1bn to prepare the river for the triathlon event and ensure that the participants don't have any issues while swimming in the river.

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Medal contenders in Triathlon Event in Paris Olympics 2024

Triathlon is a very specific kind of event where the climatic conditions matter a lot. The sport made its debut in 2000 in the Olympics and since then Great Britain has been the master of it. However, New Zealand, Australia, and Switzerland have been the close contenders as well.

Hayden Wilde from New Zealand won a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. He has been in good form recently with a silver medal in Commonwealth Games. Wilde has suffered injuries post-Commonwealth games but he is a promising aspect for a medal.

Matt Hauser is from Australia and it is projected that he might become the first Australian to win a medal in the Paris Olympics 2024 in the triathlon event.

Alex Yee and Beth Potter are defending champions in the triathlon as they won a gold medal in the previous edition. The duo will be hoping to continue the dominance of Great Britain in the sport.