Swim cancelled for Para event at Paris Test Event

After the elite women and men swam 1,500 m in the Seine, World Triathlon pulled the plug on the swim for the Para athletes today at the Paris Test Event, turning today’s races into a duathlon.

Paris Olympic organizers and various levels of government have made cleaning up the waters of the Seine River a focal point of preparation for the Games next year. Over the last seven years the various government stakeholders (State, City of Paris and others) have invested over 1.4 billion Euros to try and clean up the Seine so three events could be hosted there for next year’s Olympics and Paralympics – the triathlon races and the open-water swim events. The clean up efforts appeared to making some decent headway, with swimmers taking part in an event in the river in early July.

Then, earlier this month, an Open Water Swimming World Cup event had to be cancelled due to poor water quality. That led to questions about this weeks Paris Test Events, which included the Elite races on Thursday and Friday, the Para events today and then a mixed relay on Sunday.

Citing a “significant discrepancy on the data between the results of the latest water quality tests provided by the laboratory and the high frequency sample analyses,” World Triathlon cancelled the swim for today’s Para competition to “not put the health and safety of the athletes at risk.”

“Paris 2024, the City of Paris and the public authorities are investigating the data discrepancy and will share more details as soon as more information is available,” the statement continued.

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— World Triathlon (@worldtriathlon) August 19, 2023

No announcement has been made regarding the mixed relay event scheduled for tomorrow.

This is the second time in a row that the elite athletes have been in the water for the Test event, with the Para athletes being forced to compete in a duathlon – the same happened at the Tokyo Test Event in 2019 (see below).

They said it: Tyler Mislawchuk, Stefan Daniel and Jessica Tuomela win Tokyo Test Event

Daniel takes third

Canadian Stefan Daniel, who took third at the Tokyo Paralympics to go along with his silver medal from the Rio Games, finished third in today’s duathlon race behind American Chris Hammer and Brazil’s Ronan Cordeiro. Canadian Kamylle Frenette also took third behind American Grace Norman and Great Britain’s Clair Cashmore. The only other Canadian competing in the Test Event, Leanne Taylor, finished fourth in the wheelchair catogory. Ironman record holder Lauren Parker (AUS) won that category.