In a statement, World Aquatics said that the quality of the river water had suffered due to the recent above-average rainfall in Paris
In what was the first major setback for the organising committee of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the global swimming federation, World Aquatics, called off the Open Water Swimming World Cup that was to be held in the Seine River in Paris on Sunday.
The World Cup was cancelled at the last minute due to poor quality of water in the river. In a statement, World Aquatics said that the quality of the river water had suffered due to the recent above-average rainfall in Paris.
In a statement, World Aquatics said that the water quality in the Seine remained below acceptable standards for safeguarding swimmers’ health. ‘‘Consequently, World Aquatics, in consultation with public health authorities and event delivery partners, has cancelled the Open Water Swimming World Cup planned for this weekend,’’ it said.
‘‘World Aquatics is disappointed that water quality in the Seine has resulted in the cancellation of the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup, but the health of our athletes must always be our top priority,’’ said World Aquatics President Captain Husain Al Musallam.
In a significant reference to the impact of this cancellation on the swimming competitions in the next year’s Olympic Games that begin in Paris in August 2024, it called for the organising committee to take urgent measures.
“World Aquatics understands that further infrastructure projects will be completed to significantly improve water quality in the Seine in the lead-up to next year’s Olympic Games. World Aquatics remains excited at the prospect of city-centre Olympic racing for the world’s best open water swimmers next summer. Based on this weekend, it is clear that further work is needed with Paris 2024 and local authorities to ensure robust contingency plans are in place for next year,” it added in the press statement.
For its part, the organising committee said that the recent rainfall in Paris was exceptional and the heaviest since 1965 and which had an impact on the quality of the water in the Seine. Despite the improvements seen over the past three days, this quality remained slightly below the levels established by public health authorities and World Aquatics to protect the health of swimmers, said Paris2024 Organising Committee in a press statement.
The organisers maintained that in recent weeks, the quality of the water in the Seine had regularly reached the levels required for the holding of competitions on the dedicated site, thus demonstrating the significant progress made. At the beginning of July, swimmers also bathed in the Seine at Bras Marie, one of the three sites in the centre of Paris planned to host public bathing facilities from 2025, it said.
‘‘This improvement was thus observed during the authorisation given by the prefect of the Île-de-France region, prefect of Paris on July 27 for the organisation of the events in the Seine after the favourable opinion issued by the Regional Health Agency in the light of the results of the samples taken between June 6 and July 19,’’ said the organising committee.
It added that in the coming days, the water quality will continue to be carefully monitored, in the confident hope, based on the current weather forecast, that top athletes will be able to compete in the Seine, during the Test Triathlon and Para Triathlon event scheduled from August 17 to 20.
‘‘One year before the Games, the deployment of the bathing plan, co-managed by the State and the City of Paris, continues to significantly improve the quality of the water in the Seine,’’ it said.
For the record, important measures have already been taken for several years to improve the quality of the water of the Seine, thanks to the commitment of many actors at national, regional and local levels. Work has already been carried out and is producing effects in dry weather: commissioning in early summer 2023 of the disinfection of discharges from the two wastewater treatment plants upstream of Paris on the Seine and the Marne, or even gradual compliance work for poor building connections and boat connections.
The organisers assure that by 2024, new infrastructure will be delivered to further improve water treatment in rainy weather and thus improve water quality. As such, the Austerlitz storage basin, a cylinder 50m in diameter and more than 30m deep, will store more than 50,000m3 of water, the equivalent of twenty Olympic swimming pools. This basin will make it possible to be better prepared for exceptional weather events by avoiding spills of wastewater into the Seine in the event of heavy rain. Thanks to this basin, the excess water will flow into the sewer system to be treated, it adds.
Besides numerous other measures to clean the water of Seine, the organisers say that specific measures are planned for 2024 to reduce the impact of these weather risks on the smooth running of competitions in the Seine, in particular a contingency day to be able to postpone competitions according to water quality.
Finally, it should be noted that this test nevertheless made it possible to prepare for the summer of 2024 since the same land and river equipment will be installed. This was in particular the opportunity to check the ability to deploy the river equipment (pontoon, buoys, marina) within the time limits set for the proper conduct of the events and to restore navigation on the Seine on time, says the Organising Committee.
