Olympic triathlon could become a duathlon due to 'alarming' pollution in the Seine river as Paris organisers warn costly clean-up operation 'is one of the biggest challenges'

Olympic organisers have warned that the triathlon in Paris could become a duathlon because of pollution in the Seine river.

On Tuesday, a French water charity raised concerns about the ‘alarming’ state of the Seine and the ‘risk faced by athletes moving in contaminated water’ despite a clean-up operation costing more than a billion Euros.

Now Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet has admitted that contingency plans are in place should heavy rain raise E.coli levels further and make open-water swimming unsafe at the Games.

The worst-case scenario would see the opening 1500metres swimming leg of the triathlon scrapped and the event be downgraded to a duathlon, consisting of just a 40km bike ride and 10km run, for the first time in Olympic history.

The other option would be to delay the men’s and women’s races, which are deliberately scheduled to take place on the early dates of July 30 and July 31. The mixed relay is on August 5, while the men’s and women’s marathon swimming races are on August 8 and August 9.

‘It’s one of the biggest challenges,’ admitted Estanguet. ‘If it’s not suitable (to swim), we postpone and change the date. Maybe one, three days until it’s OK.

‘There is a final decision where we could not swim and it’s part of the rules of the International Federations. They would then switch to duathlon.

‘It’s what we want to avoid, but the first part of the contingency is to postpone the dates of the competition. That’s why we have programmed the triathlon at the beginning of the Games.’

Triathlon is one of Team GB’s strongest sports, with Alex Yee and Georgia Taylor-Brown claiming individual silvers at Tokyo 2020, before helping Britain win gold in the mixed event. Yee and Beth Potter also won last year’s test events in Paris.