Paris Olympics Postpones Men’s Triathlon Race Due to Polluted Seine River

Set to kick off on Tuesday morning, the Olympics men’s triathlon swimming competition has been postponed due to pollution in the Seine river.

The subject of a running joke since the release of Xavier Gens’ hit shark movie “Under Paris” on Netflix, the Seine was supposed to be clean enough for the Triathlon and Marathon competitions. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo had pledged to make the water quality safe enough for athletes and locals to swim in it many months ago. The ambitious project to clean the notoriously toxic river cost more than $1.5 billion, but it was soon plagued by scorn and even a social media campaign #JeChieDansLaSeine, which encouraged Parisians to defecate in the water earlier this month.

The Paris mayor took a swim in the Seine (wearing a wetsuit and goggles) on July 17 alongside Tony Estanguet, the gold medal-winning French slalom canoeist who presides over the Olympics organizing committee, to drum up enthusiasm and show that it was safe enough. But it turns out that the Seine is still highly polluted, according to daily water tests which measured levels of a faecal bacteria known as E. coli.

Local media outlets have reported that the heavy rains on July 26 – mainly during the opening ceremony — have ramped up the levels of E. coli and other bacteria in the Seine. That had already caused two training days (on Sunday and Monday) to be canceled. The men’s triathlon has now been tentatively rescheduled for Wednesday, and could also be pushed to Friday (Aug. 2) if necessary. The mixed team relay, meanwhile, is set for Aug. 5.

The pouring rain during the opening ceremony also forced Lady Gaga to pre-tape her performance for safety reasons. Maud le Pladec, the choreographer and head of dance for the Olympics and Paralympics who worked with Gaga for many months, said her show was nearly called off due to the weather conditions.