Now it has happened – the triathlon at the 2024 Paralympics had to be postponed. What nobody believed yesterday became reality on Sunday night at around 3:30 a.m.
It had rained repeatedly in the past few days. This rainfall caused the water quality of the Seine to deteriorate. The values are now above the limit values for the safe holding of the competition.
The umbrella organization for triathlon sport, World Triathlon, which was also represented at the consultation that night, established these limits to ensure safe sport for all athletes. The organizers of the Paralympics justified their decision in a similar way. Their priority is the health of the athletes. To protect them, the triathlon competition has now been postponed until Monday – provided that conditions improve. The decision on this is expected again at around 3:30 a.m. on Monday.
For Neele Ludwig, the German triathletethe postponement is not the end of the world. She read the news this morning and simply went back to sleep. She thinks it is right that attention is being paid to the health of the athletes.
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“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in parasports, in my professional context as a pediatric nurse and from my life, it’s flexibility and the ability to accept things as they are,” the Hamburg native told Tagesspiegel. She’ll continue with her normal training today.
In Paris, people will be looking at the weather conditions and water quality in the coming hours. If swimming in the Seine is still not possible, a duathlon could be held. The athletes would run two and a half kilometers, then cycle twenty kilometers and finally lace up their running shoes again to cross the finish line after a five-kilometer course.
