aris — Water in the Seine River had unsafe elevated levels of E. coli less than two months before swimming competitions are scheduled to take place in it during the Paris Olympics, according to test results published Friday. Contamination levels in the first eight days of June, after persistent heavy rain in Paris, showed bacteria such as E.
coli and enterococci beyond limits judged safe for athletes. The report was published by monitoring group Eau de Paris one day after a senior International Olympic Committee executive said there were “no reasons to doubt” races will go ahead as scheduled in in a historic downtown stretch of the Seine near the Eiffel Tower. The first Olympic event in the cleaned-up Seine is men’s triathlon, including a 1.
5-kilometer (under 1 mile) swim, on the morning of July 30. The women’s triathlon is the next day and a mixed relay event is on Aug. 5.
Marathon swimming races over 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) for women and men are scheduled on Aug. 8 and 9, respectively, in waters that were historically polluted before a $1.
5 billion investment ahead of the Olympics “We are confident that we will swim in the Seine this summer,” IOC official Christophe Dubi said Thursday at an online briefing after hearing an update Paris from city officials and Olympic organizers. Despite the IOC’s publicly expressed confidence, the final decision on approving the events safe for athletes should rest with the governing bodies of individual sports, World Aqua.