Instead of focusing maximum attention on an opening ceremony that could generously be described as polarizing, perhaps the Parisian organizers of the 2024 Summer Olympics should’ve put more attention on the events themselves.
While much of the world has been dissecting and discussing the merits (or lack thereof) of the Olympics opening ceremonies and its religious overtones, that particular controversy may have worked out quite well for the organizers.
How?
Because all the chatter about the opening ceremonies has distracted people from talking about a different sort of black eye that the Olympics are slogging through: One of its events has been a logistical disaster.
As multiple outlets, including USA Today, have reported, the river Seine in France has become a cesspool of pollution.
And that’s a bit of a problem for the triathlon competitors at the Olympics.
The Seine is supposed to be the site of the swimming portion of triathlon competitions, but it is currently not usable because it’s — to put it bluntly — disgusting.
“Whether the Seine will be clean enough to host Olympic triathlon and open-water swimming events has been a much debated topic at the Games,” USA Today reported.
The key culprit in all of this consternation is the infamous E. coli bacteria, which can be found in way-too-high levels in the Seine.
Costly cleanup efforts (over $1.5 billion dollars) appeared to yield acceptable results — at first.
“The river was deemed clean enough for the swimming competitions following a series of tests in earlier this month but heavy rainfall in France’s capital over the past 48 hours appears to have set that back,” USA Today reported.
The outlet did note that triathlon authorities are “confident that water quality will return to below limits before the start of the triathlon competitions.”
The event officially begins Tuesday, but the Seine was supposed to be a training site for athletes over the weekend.
While the biking and running training sessions were uninterrupted with the state of the Seine, the swimming portion obviously didn’t happen.
As the Associated Press noted, two straight days of practice at the Seine were cancelled, leaving prospective competitors unable to prepare for arguably the most grueling part of a triathlon.
In an ironic twist, the Parisian Olympics organizers appear to be banking on God — despite what many decried as blasphemous undertones in the opening ceremonies.
“The sport’s governing body, World Triathlon, its medical team and city officials are banking on sunny weather and higher temperatures to bring levels of E. coli and other bacteria below the necessary limits to stage the swim portion of the race,” the AP reported.
According to USA Today, the current plan is for the event to continue as planned on Tuesday, assuming the E. coli levels improve. “Plan B” would see the event delayed by yet another day.
A much more monumental “Plan C” would see the swimming portion of the triathlon (biathlon, now) dropped altogether.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
