Olympic Triathlon Postponed
 

Runoff from recent heavy rains have caused the water conditions in the river to be unsafe for humans.

I don’t get it. They actually built artificial facilities for events normally done in open water…kayaking, canoeing, and rowing. But for event that competitors have to actually get in the water (triathlon and Marathon swim)…they use the most polluted waterway around. Why aren’t these events held at the facility where rowing is held???

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/29/sport...hnk/index.html

Part of me wants to believe there was some official or some politician who said the the person responsible for testing the water quality “You WILL find the water within acceptable levels for human swimming.”

Dan

It's the Frogs. Sadly, as a society, they've been going down hill ever since Napoleon was defeated.

I do find it interesting they're only delaying it for one day. What is the plan? I get rain run-off washes a bunch of gunk into the river, but do they have some kind of plan to remediate the course?

They had similar issues Rio. In 2008 Beijing games they did use the artificial rowing facility with filtered water conditioning.

Dan

Well…they swam in the river. I’ve done some triathlons in nasty water but I don’t know if I could have done this.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...y/74614835007/

Again…and hopefully for the future…why aren’t they using the controlled, artificial body of water that rowing is done in?

Dan

How long is the swim? 1600 meters? Is anyone really going to get sick, unless they swallow a mouth full of French poop?

The swim in an Oly tri is 1500 meters (0.93 mile). With E. coli sometimes you don’t even have to get IN the water. If it’s splashed it can affect you. And swallowing the polluted water isn’t the only worry. It can, and usually does, get in your sinuses, eyes, and/or ears, and can cause infection. Generally, I try to avoid getting in the open water right after a rain because of runoff…car chemicals dripped onto streets, lawn chemicals, animal waste. I will wait a tide cycle or two before getting back in (of course there not tide in fresh water lakes). And, I usually do a sinus rinse, and an alcohol mixture ear rinse after just about all open water swims.

Dan