Organizers have announced that the upcoming men’s and women’s Olympic triathlons now face only a 60% chance of proceeding on Wednesday, following the postponement of the men’s event scheduled for Tuesday. Early morning water quality tests conducted in the River Seine confirmed that the conditions were not clean enough for the race to be held.
The competitions are now rescheduled to occur on Wednesday, with the women’s triathlon set to kick off at 08:00 local time (07:00 BST), and the men’s event following at 09:45 BST (10:45 local time). President of World Triathlon, Marisol Casado, previously indicated an 80% likelihood that the men’s triathlon would take place on Tuesday, but ultimately acknowledged that “unfortunately it was the 20%” that prevailed.
When questioned about the likelihood of the triathlons proceeding on Wednesday, Casado provided a “60-40″ estimate in favor of the events occurring. She expressed disappointment, stating, “We really want this to happen. We truly believed that the recovery of the water quality would be faster than it was. We were shocked this morning when we found out that it was not improving as we had hoped.”
The men’s race was originally scheduled for 07:00 BST (08:00 local time) on Tuesday. Although Friday, August 2, has been designated as a backup date for both races, organizers have also indicated the possibility of holding the events as a duathlon, which would include only the cycling and running segments, if necessary.
Among the favorites for gold in the men’s race is Great Britain’s Alex Yee, while teammate Beth Potter is the reigning women’s world champion.
