Troubled waters at Olympic triathlon make for scenic but risky races

PARIS – The morning rain turned to a drizzle around 8 a.m. Wednesday morning in Paris, just as 46 of the world’s fittest women trotted up the Pont Alexandre III, descended a staircase to a floating dock and dove into the Seine, ignoring the bacteria.

After years of planning, the construction of a $1.5 billion sewage storage system, months of nerves and a final 24-hour delay as Mother Nature cleaned up the last of the sewage overflow as best she could, this elite group of Olympic-distance triathletes did what almost everyone has been disgusted with for 100 years.

Was the river clean? Let’s say clean enough, and leave it at that.

At 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Olympic organizers and representatives of a regional environmental agency, the city of Paris and the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region conducted a test that showed the Seine has not been flowing since last weekend’s downpour that battered the opening ceremony and sent thousands of gallons of fresh sewage into urban waterways.

Unlike the previous three days, when organizers canceled two training swims and postponed the men’s race by 27 hours, the river passed the test this time. But, officials noted, with levels of E. coli and enterococci below the thresholds for bacteria, viruses and other diseases that health experts and the world governing bodies for triathlon and swimming have set for open-water events.

On Wednesday morning, swimmers finally entered the Seine. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

And so they set off, with the sound of a high-pitched squeak as they raced through the murky grey-brown water. The greatest danger, however, proved to be the slippery road surface, which had caused many accidents among cyclists as they tried to avoid each other and negotiate the tight bends of perhaps the most picturesque urban course.

The Eiffel Tower and the Grand Palais towered over the 1,500-meter swim. The triathletes cycled past the Musee D’Orsay and the Assemblée National. The Arc de Triomphe flashed into view as they zoomed up the Champs-Elysées during the seven loops that made up the 25-mile ride. And they revisited many of the hot spots during the 6.2-mile run.

This was one of those moments the organizers dreamed of when they designed the Games a decade ago: a race through the heart of Paris, a video postcard of one of the most breathtaking cities in the world.

And hopefully no one gets sick from drinking or immersing themselves in that river water.

Taylor Knibb of the United States said she crashed during training last weekend and was left with cuts and scabs on her lower left leg. She debated for days whether to take antibiotics before getting in the water. She decided against it.

She said she simply decided not to think about the pollution and just focus on the race. As she struggled to swim against the current, she thought, “I just want to get this over with.”

Her teammate, Taylor Spivey, said a real problem Tuesday was the current and swimming back against the current in the second half of Leg 1. It was one of the strongest currents she’s ever competed in, she said, since triathlons generally aren’t held in rivers.

“I felt like I was on a treadmill,” she said.

None of this came as a surprise to anyone involved in the location of the race in the Seine. Olympic organizers, Parisian officials, the leaders of the World Triathlon, they all wanted their race in the city center and the Games themselves. The alternative would probably have been a lake far outside the city. No one wanted that.

Moreover, the Olympics often serve as a way to free up money for dream projects that would otherwise never be realized. Officials have been talking about making the Seine swimmable for more than 30 years. The sewage retention project became one of the Games’ legacies, something organizers could point to when asked if it was worth going to all the trouble to host it.

Next summer, three swimming areas in the Seine will open to the public. That is the plan, at least, along with three more races in the river before these Games are over.

To the race: Bermuda’s Flora Duffy, the reigning Olympic champion, led by a hair after the swim, the event that’s more about survival and trying to hurt competitors than building a lead. The cycling event thinned things out a bit, with Duffy sharing the lead with Maya Kingma of the Netherlands, Georgia Taylor-Brown of Britain and the city favorite, Cassandre Beaugrand of France.

Yet the way triathlon has evolved, with more and more elite runners migrating to the sport and learning to swim and bike to make it to the final stretch, this race was always going to come down to running. At 82 minutes, Switzerland’s Julie Derron laced up her running shoes and led the race into the final segment.

Beaugrand wins on Pont Alexandre III. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Spivey, of the United States, was the first of the contenders to fall off the back of the peloton. Duffy, who had to push the peloton harder on the bike but couldn’t, and Taylor-Brown fell off at the end of the first lap, when a leading group of four split from the rest.

As so often, it produced some cruel Olympic math. Four contenders, three medals, with two French women, Beaugrand and Emma Lombardi, hanging with Derron and Beth Potter of Great Britain, legs turning to slime all over the course.

Derron ran fearlessly, staying ahead on a still, hard morning with no headwind to worry about, her stride easy, her shoulders steady. Beaugrand moved onto her shoulder with two miles to go, Potter and Lombardi doggedly following as the bell sounded, signaling the final loop.

Then Beaugrand made her move. Coming in, one of the big questions, besides the health of the river, was whether racing in front of her home fans would inspire Beaugrand or whether the pressure would be too much.

In the final mile, with thousands of flags waving and the noise building in the heart of the city, Beaugrand left no doubt, she raced, three, then seven, then 10, then 20 meters ahead, grabbing the ribbon at the finish and pulling it to her face before collapsing on the carpet. Derron took silver. Potter took bronze.

Alex Yee, right, runs out of the Seine toward the next leg of the race during his gold medal run. (Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)

In the men’s event, Alex Yee of Great Britain won a stunning and dramatic gold medal. The 26-year-old improved on the silver he won in Tokyo three years ago to gold after overtaking New Zealander Hayden Wilde and (of course) coming back during the race.

He is only the second British man to take home individual triathlon gold, after Alistair Brownlee did so at back-to-back Games in London and Rio de Janeiro. France’s Leo Bergere completed a multi-event medal double for the hosts.

Italy’s Alessio Crociani was first up after completing the energy-sapping 1.5km stretch at the top of the field before embarking on the six-lap, 40km bike, which was tight throughout. Wilde got going on the second lap of the 10km run, putting him in a strong position for gold.

But in one of the most dramatic closing stages of these Games so far, Yee came roaring back, passing Wilde at the entrance to the Pont Alexandre III with just a few metres to go before crossing the finish line at an almost running pace to claim Olympic glory.

“I have so much respect for Hayden and how he made me dig in there,” Yee said. “He was an amazing athlete and for me, almost two rounds in, I thought silver was on the cards, but I owed it to myself to give myself one last chance.”

Although Tuesday was a triumph for the organisers, the Seine still has a long way to go.

Three more Olympic competitions will take place on the river: the mixed triathlon relay and two long-distance swimming events.

At least that’s the program. Another downpour could turn the triathlon into a duathlon and send the swimming events to the flat water canoeing location east of the city.

Less glamorous, perhaps. But also less polluted.

Ben Burrows contributed reporting.

(Top photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images)