Paris Olympics organisers said on Tuesday that open water swimming training in the Seine River had been cancelled due to pollution, raising questions about why triathletes were allowed to use the waterway a day earlier.

Competitors trying to acclimatise to the Seine’s strong currents may be disappointed after organisers stopped training on the river for the fifth time since the Games began on July 28.

A quarter of the river’s enterococcal bacteria measurements – an indicator of the presence of faeces – were above the upper allowable limit, the World Aquatics Federation and its organising committee said in a statement on Tuesday.

“This decision (to cancel the training) was taken as an extreme precaution, especially considering that another practice swim was scheduled for the following day on August 7,” it said.

Since the Seine River was chosen as the site of an Olympic triathlon and marathon swimming race, French authorities have been racing to clean up the waterway.

The triathlon was severely disrupted last week by poor bacteria readings, with all swim training cancelled and the men’s individual race postponed by 24 hours until Wednesday.

A mixed relay race also looked doubtful on Monday but eventually went ahead on schedule, with Germany taking the gold medal in a thrilling and closely contested race that saw the USA and Great Britain take silver and bronze.

The marathon swim (a 10-kilometer race in open water) will be held on Thursday for women and Friday for men.

– Diseases –

The Paris 2024 organising committee said the triathlon race would be held on Monday and marathon swimming training would be cancelled on Tuesday because the two sports are overseen by different governing bodies, World Triathlon and World Aquatics.

The World Triathlon Federation gave the green light for Monday’s race because bacteria levels were trending down and it was “willing to take into account further analysis”, organising committee spokeswoman Anne Descamps told reporters.

The organizing committee said the results of water tests were shared with triathletes before Monday’s race, one of which tested positive for enterococcus and none of them objected.

Many triathletes have expressed frustration over repeated training cancellations and uncertainty about whether their races will go ahead.

The Belgian team did not compete in the mixed relay on Monday after athlete Claire Michel fell ill after swimming in the Seine River during the women’s individual triathlon last Wednesday.

However, Michel said on Tuesday that he did not contract the E.Coli virus.

“Blood tests showed I had a virus (not E. Coli),” she wrote on Instagram, adding, “I had vomiting and diarrhea for three days which left me pretty empty.”

Both the Swiss and Norwegian teams were eliminated from the race last week after their athletes suffered stomach upsets after swimming in the Seine River, but neither directly attributed this to water quality issues.

“I was sick for about 12 hours from Friday to Saturday,” Norwegian vet Bergsvik Thorn told AFP. “I don’t know if it was food poisoning or the Seine.”

Other triathletes defended using the Seine River, saying they were not affected and were used to swimming in much more polluted waterways.

“Nobody was afraid to jump. We were all happy to race,” Germany’s Tim Hellwig, who won gold in the team event on Monday, told reporters.

“If 99 percent of the athletes have no problems, I think there is no problem,” he said.

Organisers said the marathon swimming race could be moved to another location on the Marne River east of Paris if the Seine River becomes too polluted.

On Tuesday, the men and women said they were “very confident” their events would take place on the Seine River.

adp/ric/dj/gj