It happened! After all training sessions on the Seine were cancelled, horror stories about faeces in the river water and rumours about triathlon being reduced to duathlon, the girls were back at the start of the competition. It is true that there were still a few incidents.
Did the organizers manage to solve all the problems?
The Olympic triathlon is in danger of being cancelled altogether. Athletes were not allowed to enter the dirty Seine
“We will sail”
The men were due to start in Paris on 30 July. But after heavy rain, samples taken from the Seine, which cost 1.4 billion euros to clean up, failed to meet the standard again. And before that, the official training sessions on Sunday and Monday were cancelled, also because of the rain.
On Tuesday at 3:30 Moscow time it became clear that the men could not start at the agreed time. The competition was postponed to the next day and now the women had to be the first to reach the starting line.
Triathlon fans spent the whole night in anxious anticipation. And then, closer to morning, there was a message on the World Triathlon social network: “We will sail.”
Victory for France. And a false start?
A large number of fans turned out to see the athletes enter the Seine. At 9:00 the girls jumped into the water.
The first to complete the aquatic part of the distance was Bermuda’s representative and Tokyo Olympic champion Flora Duffy. The second stage was completed by Italy’s Bianca Serenyi (9 seconds behind), and third place was taken by Brazil’s Vittoria Lopez (+13 seconds).
The river current had exhausted many of the girls. Several other athletes literally fell on the wet track of the cycling stage. There were still 10 kilometres to go on the route between the magnificent Parisian palaces.
Cassandra Beaugrand
Photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images
As a result, the finish line was taken by the host of the competition, Frenchwoman Cassandra Beaugrand, as if in a fairy tale. The athlete covered the entire distance in 1:54.55. She came out of the water sixth, and during the cycling stage she remained in the top eight, and in the final part, together with Swiss Julie Derron, British Beth Potter and her compatriot Emma Lombardi, she overtook Olympic champion Duffy.
Beaugrand became the first French woman to win a triathlon at the Olympic Games. It is true that the official approval of the results had to wait. The organisers received a protest, possibly because of a massive false start, but this is not certain and the judges spent some time considering it. As a result, all the results were confirmed.
“I’m fine, I’m not dying”
After the finish line, the main focus was on the first stage of the triathlon: swimming in the Seine.
“I think the Olympic organizers took the water quality very seriously, so it’s normal. I’m fine. Do I feel normal? Yes, it’s fine (laughs). Don’t worry! I’m fine, I’m not going to die (laughs),” said Chinese triathlete Lin Xinyu after the finish.
Lin Xinyu
Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
“The issue of water quality seems to come up at every Olympics, so I generally didn’t care. I was more worried about the current, which was crazy today. I’m glad we were able to hold the competition today. I hope we can swim in the relay as well.”
We even joke about this as a team. One of my teammates joked that not washing his hands would make him resistant to E. coli.
The current was very strong. At some point it felt like I was floating in place. Normally we swim in calm waters, without current. And then I had the feeling that I was being pulled back. It took a lot of effort to swim. “It wasn’t easy,” said American Taylor Spivey.
It’s good that the athletes themselves are dealing with what happened with humour. The main thing is that nobody will get sick tomorrow.
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