Men's Olympic triathlon race postponed over Seine pollution levels
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00:00Now to the Paris Olympics and one problem potentially affecting athletes and fans today
00:05is the weather. No, not because of the rain that we saw last week but because there's now a mini
00:10heat wave with temperatures expected to reach highs of 35 degrees Celsius. Now out there in
00:16the heat is France 24's sports editor Selena Sykes who's covering the archery at Invalides.
00:24Selena, what's happening with the archery?
00:26Well, Annette, firstly, what a spectacular setting for archery here in the center of Paris,
00:34Invalides. That was originally a military hospital even that was built in 1687 under
00:41Louis XIV. It's now usually a military museum and has several tourist attractions inside but
00:48it's been transformed like many pieces of Paris into a magnificent venue for the archery. Now,
00:55this is a sport that is usually dominated by South Korea and China. Traditionally, though,
01:00France does have some chances here. The French men's team actually have already won a silver
01:06in the men's team archery and one of those stars that helped to get that silver medal
01:12was Thomas Chirot. He is currently competing at Invalides right now against the Colombian
01:17Andres Hernandez Vera. This is his second Olympic Games and, well, he might be looking to add to the
01:21silver that he won in the team event, Annette. And as predicted, Selena, the men's Olympic
01:27triathlon plan for today has been postponed over concerns about water quality in the River Seine
01:34where the swimming portion of the race was supposed to take place. I imagine there's
01:39much concern as to whether, in fact, that swimming portion is indeed ever going to
01:43take place, keeping in mind there's thunderstorms being predicted for tomorrow and onwards.
01:52That's right, Annette. It's been one of the bigger questions kind of hanging over
01:55organisers for this Paris Games. Obviously, it was quite an ambitious plan, wasn't it,
02:00to spend this 1.4 billion euros on cleaning up the River Seine so the open water events
02:06could take a place in the heart of the French capital. And as you said, this morning's men's
02:12triathlon has been postponed until tomorrow as long as the women's race can also take place.
02:18This is also obviously pending further tests on the water quality, which is deemed not good
02:23enough for athletes to take a dip. But today, a little bit of an embarrassment for organisers.
02:29Obviously, this is one of the big legacies of this Games, not just for the Olympics,
02:32but also the idea is that Parisians can take a dip as well in the River Seine,
02:37in three parts of the River Seine from 2025. Some athletes have expressed frustration. As
02:42you can imagine, it's not ideal circumstances for them having to have this race postponed.
02:47And the worst case scenario, there is one more contingency day, potentially later in August,
02:52in August, if the race cannot go ahead as planned tomorrow. But the worst case scenario,
02:58organisers said, that this will become a duathlon without the swimming lap of this
03:03triathlon. And that would be a worst case scenario and a lot of disappointment for athletes.