A weekend of torrential rain that swept millions of gallons of sewage into the Seine could force Paris Olympic organizers to cancel the swim leg of the triathlon—and puncture a long-held dream for the city’s mayor.
Authorities have spent some $1.5 billion cleaning up the Seine before the Paris Games, installing a huge tank that can hold 12 million gallons of wastewater to stop it spilling into the river.
But the system couldn’t cope with the heavy rains that put a damper on Friday’s opening ceremony and continued unabated over the weekend. On Monday, as the sun finally came out again, organizers canceled for the second straight day a “familiarization’” swim for triathletes because of the high bacteria levels. Officially, they remain “confident” that the men’s and women’s races can still go ahead on Tuesday and Wednesday—but it looks increasingly likely the Paris Olympic triathlon will go into the record books as a duathlon, with the swim leg canceled but the cycling and running legs still taking place.
