Olympic chiefs 'confident' for Wednesday triathlon

PARIS -- World Triathlon and Paris 2024 officials have said they are "confident" that the men's and women's Olympic triathlon races can be staged on Wednesday despite a rainstorm expected to hit Paris on Tuesday evening.

Aurélie Merle, Paris 2024 executive director of sports, revealed that Tuesday morning's data showed that only one of the four points tested on the Seine was below World Triathlon's threshold for E. coli contamination -- two of the points were slightly above, while one was significantly above.

The city of Paris has spent €1.5 billion ($1.4bn) on a project to clean the Seine, with both the Olympic triathlon races and marathon swim set to take place in the river.

However, the pollution levels of the water remain closely tied to the weather.

"At this point, we are disappointed because we cannot follow what was planned, but we are all in a good mood thinking that we will have the opportunity [to hold the race]," World Triathlon CEO Marisol Casad said. "We are quite confident the race will happen tomorrow."

Belgium's Marten Van Riel, who will compete for Belgium in the men's triathlon, has slammed the postponement, saying the triathletes are "puppets in a puppetshow."

"If the priority was the health of the athletes, this event would have been moved to another location a long time ago," Van Riel said. "We are just puppets in a puppetshow.

"Duathlon is no triathlon, and changing the day like that in the middle of the night is disrespectful to the years of preparation of the athletes and to all (y)our fans that were going to watch live or on TV. What an appearance for triathlon on the biggest scene!"

The federation's confidence comes despite an expected rainfall for Tuesday night, just hours before the race. Merle confirmed that the rainfall during the opening ceremony was the main reason the Seine was not within the federation's threshold for pollution levels.

"The whole world has seen that it rained heavily over the course of the opening ceremony ... and also the morning after. The equivalent of July rainfall fell in just 36 hours, which is about 25mm. That is a lot," Merle said.

A decision on whether Wednesday's triathlon races will go ahead will be made at 3:30 a.m. local time, which will take into account the results from Tuesday's morning's water sample as well as a range of other factors.

If the water quality is not deemed appropriate, they will intend to run the race on Friday, which could then see officials drop the swimming leg and pivot to a duathlon should safety concerns still not be satisfied.

When asked why they remain so confident of holding the races on Wednesday, Merle said: "Obviously we are confident because we have seen in the month of July that even when it rained it has been absorbed quickly by the river so that the river would have the threshold acceptable for the international federation.

"That's why we're confident because we have seen these evolutions [previous data points] and that all the infrastructure we have built could work."

Paris 2024 has a backup plan to move the marathon swim event should the Seine not be suitable to stage it. However, no backup plan was made for the triathlon events.

"We worked very closely with World Triathlon when it came to contingency plans," Merle said. "The difference with marathon swimming is that either you swim or you cancel the race, while in the triathlon you still have the opportunity as a last resort to move to a duathlon."