Swimmers Swam in the Seine at the 2024 Summer Olympics: Inside the Sporting Events and Health Concerns
After months of speculation, the 2024 Summer Olympic athletes have finally stepped foot in the Seine River. The news comes after a report released just days earlier, in which the city said the water wasn’t swimmable at that point in time due to daily water quality tests and Seine River health concerns. To learn why Paris, France, changed its mind and how various Olympics athletes felt about swimming in the Seine River, keep reading.
All about the athletes swimming in the Seine at the 2024 Summer Olympics
On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, the men's and women’s triathlon swimming portion took place in the Seine River. In it, the athletes swam 1.5 km (0.93 miles) in the river before biking 40 km (25 miles) and then running 10km (6.2 miles).
The women competed at 2:00 a.m. EST (8:00 a.m. Paris time), with the men following them at 4:45 a.m. EST (10:45 a.m. Paris time). This comes after a previous delay in the men's competition, causing the event to be moved from Tuesday, July 30 to Wednesday, July 31.
A press release by the Paris Olympic Committee detailed how they came to the decision to allow athletes to compete in the river for the swimming leg, saying: “Following a meeting on water quality held on 31 July at 3.30 am attended by Paris 2024, representatives of World Triathlon and their Technical and Medical Delegates, Météo France, the City of Paris and the Prefecture of the ?le-de-France Region involved in carrying out water quality tests, the stakeholders involved have confirmed that the women’s and the men’s triathlons will go ahead as planned on 31 July at 8 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. respectively.”
The World Triathlon also took to X (formerly known as Twitter) posting the words, “We will swim” at 10:13 p.m. on Tuesday, July 30, 2024.
You can see the post below.
Olympic athletes respond to swimming in the Seine
Taylor Spivy, a United States competitor in the women’s division who came in 10th, told NBC News, “That current — wow. I felt like I was on a treadmill in one place.”
She also told the news outlet that she has ingested “a ton of water” but prepared for that by taking a lot of probiotics due to the health concerns and heavy rainfall that hit Paris early in the week.
Says Spivy: “We’ll see how it goes.”
Jamie Riddle, a South African who competed in the men's competition, echoed similar thoughts, revealing that, “I’m definitely going to be visiting the bathroom later, I swallowed gallons and gallons of water, so that’s gonna be a fun post-race party.”
DAVID GOLDMAN / Contributor/Getty
Others, like France’s own Cassandre Beaugrand, said that she has “no doubts about the quality of the Seine.We’ve swum in worse water.”
Beaugrand came in first place in the women’s triathlon, finishing in 1:54:55. In second was Switzerland's Julie Derron, with Great Britain's Beth Potter rounding out the podium. One American — Spivey — placed in the top 10.
Over on the men’s side, Alex Yee came in first with an end time of 1:43:33. Silver went to New Zealand athlete Hayden Wilde, with copper being awarded to France’s own Léo Bergere. No American athletes placed in the top 10 in the men’s division.
The future of swimming in the Seine
The next event scheduled to take place in the Seine River will be the marathon swimming.
The women are set to swim on Thursday, August 8, 2024, at 1:30 a.m., with the men following them on Friday, August 9, 2024, at 1:30 a.m. Both will swim 10km (6.21 miles) in the Seine.
The finalists for the events have yet to be announced, and Paris has yet to reveal if they will be swimming in the river.
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