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The pre-Olympic swimming test competition which was to take place on Sunday in the Seine in Paris was canceled due to pollution of the river, the international swimming federation announced after analyzing the latest water samples. Following recent heavy rains, “the water quality of the Seine remained below acceptable standards to preserve the health of swimmers”, World Aquatics said in a press release on Sunday. “Based on this weekend, it is clear that further work is needed with Paris 2024 and local authorities to ensure robust contingency plans are in place for next year.”
Friday’s training had already been canceled and the women’s race was postponed from Saturday to Sunday in hopes that the water quality would improve.
Last week’s heavy rains in Paris caused sewers to overflow, polluting the Seine.
“World Aquatics is disappointed that the water quality of the Seine has led to the cancellation of the World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup, but the health of our athletes must always be our top priority,” said World Aquatics Chairman Husain Al Musallam.
The federation said it “understands that other infrastructure projects will be carried out to significantly improve the water quality of the Seine in the run-up to next year’s Olympic Games.”
“World Aquatics remains excited about the prospect of hosting downtown Olympic races for the world’s best open water swimmers next summer,” he said.
These demonstrations are also a prelude to the future return of swimming in the Seine promised by the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo from 2025 on three sites where swimming has been prohibited since 1923.
Olympic open water swimming often faces pollution problems.
At the end of the test event in 2019 before the Tokyo Olympics, swimmers protested the water quality of Tokyo Bay.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, the prospect of swimming in Guanabara Bay, also very polluted, also made headlines.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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