The 2024 Olympic triathlon could be made a duathlon and marathon swimming events could be moved away from the River Seine to outside of Paris as Games organisers scramble amid a mountain of criticism.
Swimming in the river has largely been banned since 1923 and will cost offenders a 15 euro ($A25) fine.
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But the idea of swimming in the waters like athletes did back in the first Paris Games in 1900 have led to a reported $US1.5bn ($A2.2bn) clean up effort to get the river ready for the Olympics.
It’s been controversial in France with protesters threatening to defecate in the river after Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo promised to swim in the waters to prove it was clean enough for Olympic athletes.
Her dip has been delayed until after the French elections, which had the first round of voting earlier this week, with the second round to be held on July 7..
Similarly, French president Emmanuel Macron also promised to swim before the Games kick off but hasn’t offered a firm date as yet.
And in a sign that not all is well in the clean up effort, organisers have announced a back up plan for the events to be held on the Seine.
“The rules of the International Triathlon Federation allow the event to be switched to a duathlon format as a last resort,” a Paris 2024 spokesperson told Reuters.
“Conversely, in order to guarantee that the marathon swimming events would take place, once our options for postponement had been exhausted, we decided to set up a reserve site at Vaires-sur-Marne (about 35km out of Paris).
“The competition site, already used for rowing and canoeing events, has all the necessary features to host these events if required.”
The Seine has been at the centre of Paris Olympic concerns throughout the lead up to the event with a report a week ago confirming the river was still unfit for swimming with levels of E.Coli — an indicator of fecal matter — “far above the upper limits imposed by sports federations”, according to AFP.
On June 18, the levels were 10 times acceptable levels.
But a report on Thursday claimed the water quality of the Seine had improved and fallen “within acceptable limits for four days in a row following warm and sunny weather in the French capital”.
“This positive development is a consequence of the return of sunshine and warmth as well as the effects of the work done as part of the strategy to improve the quality of the Seine’s waters,” a statement from the mayor’s office said.
Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera hailed a “clear improvement in the water of the Seine’s waters” and said the readings “enable us to envisage the competitions going ahead serenely”.
However, not everyone is appeased by the favourable results.
US swimmer Ivan Puskovitch, who will compete in the long-distance open water race, slammed organisers as “irresponsible”.
“Obviously, health and safety has to come first,” Puskovitch said.
“It’s pretty disappointing that the Olympic organisers have really not locked in cleaning this venue up as far in advance as they should have, to the point where now the whole world is questioning whether it’s going to happen in time.
“That’s extremely irresponsible. I think that even if there’s a one per cent chance that the race isn’t gonna be able to be held because of cleanliness or lack of cleanliness, you need to have a backup plan. It’s the Olympics.”
If organisers go ahead with competing on the Seine, Team USA open water coach Ron Aitken said he’d offer advice to his athletes but leave the ultimate decision up to them.
“It makes no sense,” he added. “You’re gonna jeopardise people’s lives or cancel an Olympic event because you don’t have a plan B? Give me a break.”
A test event last year was cancelled over a sewage leak directly into the Seine, while Yahoo reports major storms overwhelm the waste water network and can see untreated sewage spill into the water.
