Paris Olympics swimming test event cancelled over water quality fears

euronews (in English)

The cancellations this weekend pose a new challenge to the Paris Olympics organisers and the city’s ambitions to reopen the iconic river to public swimming after the Games.

Transcript

00:00 It was meant to be a trial run for the 2024 Paris Olympics, but pollution concerns meant

00:08 the plug had to be pulled on an open water swim in the Seine on Sunday.

00:12 Although competitors had swum in the river earlier in the week, the latest water quality

00:16 tests gave organizers no choice.

00:19 "We don't have an explanation for the degradation of the water quality.

00:25 We have two measures that have shown divergence, as we said earlier.

00:32 Today, an investigation is underway to try and understand the origin of this degradation."

00:38 Paris isn't the first Olympic Games to face pollution concerns over open water swims.

00:43 Tokyo and Rio had similar problems.

00:46 However, since triathlon was introduced as an Olympic sport in Sydney in 2000, no Olympic

00:52 triathlon has ever had to convert to a biathlon.

00:56 [WHOOSH]

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