At the Olympic Games, so-called mega-talking topics always come to the fore, and in Paris, the rising water of the Seine River has certainly become such a topic.
Choosing the river as the stage for the triathlon and open water swimming of the Olympic Games was known to be a risk and a gamble, even though the riverbed, which had been off-limits to swimming for more than 100 years, has already been cleaned for about 1.4 billion euros.
After the games had already started, the E.coli and enterococcal bacteria concentrations in the water were still at such a level that the health authorities gave a very strong recommendation to cancel all swimming exercises. This is what happened, and eventually the men’s competition originally scheduled for Tuesday was also postponed.
In ignorance we were deceived
– When I went to sleep in the competition village, I didn’t know if we would compete today or not. This is not how things should go at the Olympic level, said the 20th-placed South African Henri Schoeman.
The Olympic triathlon in Rio de Janeiro eight years ago is enough to see that level, as Schoeman is competing in his third Games himself and is already the Fifth Olympic athlete in his family.
In several other countries, the bacteria concentrations in the river would have been at an “appropriate” level all along, but in the end, the incorruptible authorities in Paris gave the competition the green light based on samples taken between Tuesday and Wednesday night.
The women’s competition was able to start exactly at its original time at 8 in the morning, the men’s about 27 hours later than the original time at 11:45.
– The water tasted like vomit, and I did my best not to swallow too much of it. Now I have to wait a couple of days with the others to see if this causes diarrhea, Schoeman shook.
He stated that such a price would be too high even for the Olympic Games.
– We are all professionals and we will continue competing shortly after the Games. If we are sick and unable to compete, we lose income.
An iconic route
An experienced triathlete focused on half distances also gave incense.
– The route was absolutely fantastic and the crowd created a fantastic atmosphere.
This is full of data, because it is almost impossible to bring a sports competition to the more iconic Parisian landscapes.
The nightmare scenario was the shortening of the triathlon to a duathlon, i.e. a cycling-running combination. According to the South African, it would not have dramatically affected the final results at the top.
Your running power was booming
– Cycling was done in a big group even now, and then it became a running race. The running power of Alex and Hayden is known, Schoeman praised the top duo who plunged into the Seine as big early favorites. Britain’s Alex Yeah won, New Zealand Hayden Wilde took silver and France Leo Bergere bronze.
Yee has run 3000 meters on the track in 7:45.81, Wilde 5000 meters in 13:23.91.
The top trio in the women’s competition was France Cassandre Beaugrandof Switzerland Julie Derron and Britain Beth Potter.
Yee, who also won gold in Tokyo 2021, then in the mixed relay, is now the most successful athlete in triathlon’s 24-year Olympic journey with two golds and one silver. Britain is a country in a league of its own in terms of Olympic medals: 4 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze.
16th in Hungary Bence Bicsak admitted that the cancellation of the exercises and the uncertainty about the water quality even on the day of the competition took a toll on her mentally.
– I tried not to think about it, but it was difficult. Now I have to get some from the chef, at least it tastes better than that water, the Hungarian smiled as he left Urheilu’s torture chamber after his quick comments.
The excitement continues
Having won the individual competition in Tokyo 2021 Christian Blummenfelt the running speed has decreased a little during the Olympic journey; the difference to the top was 54 seconds and the ranking was 12th.
– Now I’m waiting to see what happens. I wouldn’t drink this water, the Norwegian referred to his previous harsh experiences.
He became seriously ill at the end of last summer after a triathlon competition held in Singapore after swallowing contaminated water. A week later, the half-distance Ironman World Championship held in Lahti was a Via Dolorosa for a man drained of energy.
The athletes will have to worry about the quality of Seine’s water in the competition village for a long time to come, because the Olympic Games will not culminate in the sport until August 5 with the mixed relay.