Paris 2024 intends to be there – Sport & Société

Less than a year from the opening of the Paris 2024 Summer Games, the cancellation of the fourth stage of the Open Water Swimming World Cup scheduled for this weekend in the Seine, shows the work remaining to be done. accomplish to ensure the bathability of the river, in 2024 for competitors and in two years for the general public.

Visual of the Pont Alexandre III site configured for triathlon and para-triathlon events, as well as for open water swimming events, as part of the Paris 2024 Summer Games (Credits – Paris 2024)

Below the Alexandre III Bridge, facing a floating pontoon specially fitted out for the occasion, the fourth stage of the Open Water Swimming World Cup should give, this weekend of August 05 and 06, 2023, an overview of the mobilization of the Seine as part of competitions expected during the Paris 2024 Summer Games.

Finally, due to the severe weather observed in recent days – unprecedented in their configuration and their occurrence at this time of year since 1965 according to the authorities – and in the light of the readings relating to the quality of the water in the river, World Aquatics and the French Swimming Federation have decided to cancel the meeting.

In a brief press release, the International Federation did not hide its disappointment at the impossibility of maintaining the Parisian stage, while projecting itself on 2024, also noting that significant efforts still had to be made in coordination with the public authorities and the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Games (OCOG).

As World Aquatics President Husain Al Musallam said:

World Aquatics is disappointed that the water quality of the Seine has led to the cancellation of the Open Water Swimming World Cup stage, but the health of our athletes must always be our top priority.

World Aquatics understands that other infrastructure projects will be completed to significantly improve the water quality of the Seine in the run-up to the Games.

World Aquatics remains excited to hold downtown Olympic races for the world’s best open water swimmers next summer.

Based on this weekend, it is clear that further work is needed for Paris 2024 and local authorities to ensure that strong contingency plans are in place for next year..

For its part, the International Triathlon Federation – which is planning a test for triathlon and para-triathlon between August 17 and 20 – has indicated that it will follow the results of the next analyzes. Above all, the international body clarified that the format of the events could be adapted if necessary, in other words, by removing the swimming part if necessary.

As World Triathlon stated in a statement:

For Paris 2024 and World Triathlon, the health and safety of athletes is our top priority.

We will therefore continue, together with the competent authorities, to carefully monitor the water quality over the next few days, in the confident hope – based on the current weather forecast – that top athletes will compete in the Seine later this month.

In the unlikely event that water quality fails to meet World Triathlon requirements and public health criteria, a contingency plan will be put in place which will see the race(s) switch to a duathlon format.

One year before the Games, efforts to make the Seine swimmable, led by the State and the City of Paris, continue to significantly improve the quality of the water in the Seine.

View of the floating pontoon set up below the Pont Alexandre III in Paris in anticipation of the open water swimming and triathlon and para-triathlon test events (Credits – World Aquatics)

For the organizers of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the issue of bathability of the Seine is a key point of the proposed system.

First a promise during the candidacy phase – itself inherited from an electoral promise at the end of the 1980s – swimming in the Seine then constituted a colossal logistical challenge, with the mobilization of 1.4 billion euros and the construction of several infrastructures in and outside the capital.

On this subject, the OCOG had the opportunity to recall this weekend that work was still to be finalized, the City of Paris having specified from the beginning of July that the operations undertaken would be completed at 75 % at the end of this summer. A way of reassuring all those involved in the Olympic and Paralympic project.

The local authorities had notably listed the four axes within which worksites had been implemented, whether through the modernization or the construction of works aimed at reducing wastewater spills in the event of stormy weather, the removal of bad connections – 23,000 – from homes joining the Seine and the Marne, but also the connection of around 260 boats to the sewerage network, as well as the so-called treatment of “disinfection” water discharged by the treatment plants managed by the Interdepartmental Syndicate for Sanitation of the Parisian Agglomeration (SIAAP) upstream of Paris, on the sites of Noisy-le-Grand (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Valenton (Val de Marne).

Among the major projects, that of the Austerlitz storage basin, in the 13th arrondissement of the capital, is undoubtedly one of the most representative of the efforts made today.

Indeed, by 2024, in the event of severe weather like those that have occurred in the past few days, and with the aim of preventing the saturation of the sewers, the cylindrical structure 50 meters in diameter and more than 30 meters deep will be able to able to retain more than 50,000 m3 of water, the equivalent of some 20 Olympic swimming pools.

Alongside this system, other large-scale equipment will also be operational from next year.

This will particularly concern the watershed of Ru Saint-Baudile (Seine-Saint-Denis) which will therefore offer a storage capacity of 30,000 m3, or the VL8, the large capacity collector – diameter of 2.5 to 3 meters and length of around 10 kilometers – built almost 30 meters underground between the departments of Essonne and Val-de-Marne.

View of the construction site of the Austerlitz basin in Paris (Credits – Guillaume Bontemps / City of Paris)

In any case, the authorities’ projections suggest that the facilities, once completed in their entirety, will ensure that the Games are able to avoid a hazard like the one spotted this weekend.

Of course the timing of the cancellation of the open water swimming World Cup stage comes at the worst time in terms of communication and in terms of the calendar, shortly after the celebrations relating to the countdown to the Games, a year before the opening on the Seine.

Nevertheless, swimmers and organizers are aware of the constraints that can arise in a natural environment which is a key component of the practice of marathon swimming.

The case of Paris, however, cannot be compared to that of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) which, after obtaining the 2016 Olympics, had presented a vast plan to clean up the famous bay. However, logistical and financial difficulties had punctuated the implementation of this plan from 2014, while strong criticism and the publication of bacteriological analyzes had subsequently caused concern among future competitors.

Also, resolutely confident less than a year from the 2024 Games, the Paris OCOG intends to be ready, with the support of the State, the City of Paris and all the stakeholders, already with a view to of the triathlon and para-triathlon meeting in the days to come, and moreover in view of the Games.

If by chance an intense meteorological episode were to occur during the Olympic and Paralympic event, Paris 2024 has already planned to set up a contingency day. In other words, competitions impacted by a possible poor quality of the water in the Seine may be postponed.

This possible postponement – ​​which could reach two contingency days – will nevertheless be constrained by the closing date of the Olympic Games, i.e. August 11, 2024, knowing that open water swimming is expected on the Pont Alexandre III site between August 8 and August 09.

Regarding the planned course of the triathlon competitions, the individual events will be orchestrated on July 30 and 31, 2024, a few days before the mixed relay event scheduled for August 05. As for the para-triathlon events, these will be held on site September 1 and 2, 2024.

Visual of the Bras de Grenelle bathing site, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris (Credits – City of Paris)

Beyond the Games, the challenge posed by the developments in and outside Paris also responds to the promise to make the Seine swimmable again for Parisians and visitors from 2025, i.e. precisely 102 years after the ban formulated by the authorities, both in the face of demographic pressure at the time and with regard to river traffic and port activities.

Early July – on the sidelines of the operation “Paris Beaches” in which a summer bathing area has already been identified on the Bassin de La Villette (19th) since 2017 – the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has in this sense announced that three sites along the Seine would be open one year after the holding games.

Facing Île Saint-Louis, the site of the Bras Marie (4th) will thus be accessible, just like that of the Bras de Grenelle (15th)between the port of Grenelle and the shores of Île aux Cygnes, but also that of Bercy (12th)at the gateway Simone de Beauvoirbelow the Parc de Bercy opposite the Library François Mitterrand.

From 2025, buoys will make it possible to delimit the bodies of water which will be monitored and arranged around a pontoon for safe access. Spaces intended for bathers will also be arranged on the lower quays, including changing rooms and showers.

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