This comes just a day after Alex Yee led Team GB's triathlon mixed relay team to a bronze medal, which included a 300-meter swim. However, World Aquatics deemed the water unsafe shortly after. Swimmers were scheduled for open-water recon sessions in the river ahead of the women's 10km marathon on Thursday and the men's race on Friday. But tests showed that levels of Enterococci - an indicator of fecal pollution - were too high.
World Aquatics released a statement saying: "The water quality review showed E. coli levels ranged from 326 to 517 (considered "very good" to "good") at the four collection points taken on 5 August between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m (local time).
"However, Enterococci levels exceeded World Aquatics maximum thresholds during the morning review. The latest Enterococci samples (taken between 12:30 and 13:20 on 4 August) showed levels exceeding the maximum acceptable World Aquatics thresholds."
The statement added: "With a favourable weather forecast and forward-looking analysis, World Aquatics and Paris 2024 remain confident that the Marathon Swimming competitions on 8 and 9 August will proceed as planned."
Tests conducted on August 4 were carried out before the Seine was used for Monday's mixed relay triathlon. However, Anne Descamps, Paris 2024 executive director of communications, clarified that the relevant test was taken in a part of the river not used for the triathlon. Descamps further stated that Tuesday's session was cancelled "taken with an abundance of caution" since another session is planned for Wednesday.
The topic of water quality overshadowed the lead-up to all three triathlons during the first week of the Games. Several familiarisation sessions were cancelled and the men's race was postponed by a day to allow conditions to improve.
Monday's mixed relay proceeded without the Belgian team, who pulled out after athlete Claire Michel fell ill following her participation in the women's race, where she finished 38th, the previous Wednesday. In preparation for the Olympics, Paris 2024 spent more than $1 billion attempting to clean up the Seine. However, water quality levels have declined during the Games due to several storms.
American triathlete Morgan Pearson expressed his dissatisfaction, stating: "They should have made a big net and invested more into having clean water. It seems like they were just hoping for the best and know that athletes would go ahead because it’s the Olympics.
"In Tokyo wee swam in a bay and they had this net with some sort of filtration system - maybe they should have done that here. It just seemed like a bit of a crapshoot if we’d race or not.
"We’ve been talking about this for two years and then it’s the week of the Olympics and they’re just hoping for the best. It will be interesting to see what the next couple of days holds - I was surprised we had the (mixed relay) race because it rained two nights ago. It will be interesting to see how many athletes get sick."
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