Heavy rains have set back plans to test Paris's readiness for swimmers to race in the Seine River at next year's Summer Olympics. A planned training session on Friday, August 4, for swimmers aiming to compete this weekend in the river that cuts through Paris was canceled because the water quality dropped below acceptable standards, World Aquatics, the international governing body of swimming, said.
That can happen when rains cause overflows of untreated waste into the Seine. France's capital city is spending massively on water-management projects that officials say will make pollution caused by storms less frequent.
World Aquatics said that after days of rain, "the water quality in the Seine has currently fallen below acceptable standards for safeguarding swimmers’ health." A decision on whether the Open Water Swimming World Cup event goes ahead as scheduled on Saturday and Sunday will follow more water-quality tests, it said.
The competition is among a raft of events used to test the city's Olympic plans. The Seine is the venue for marathon swimming at the Games next summer and the swimming leg of Olympic and Paralympic triathlon.