France’s Cassandre Beaugrand yesterday won gold in the women’s triathlon at the Paris Olympics, cheered on by a delighted crowd as the hosts’ gamble to hold the swim stage of the race in the Seine River paid off after days of uncertainty.
The triathlon, a central showpiece of the Paris Games, started and finished at the Pont Alexandre III bridge at the heart of the French capital, taking athletes along a section of the Champs-Elysees and past more Parisian landmarks including the Musee d’Orsay.
The men’s triathlon had been scheduled for Tuesday but, after the river failed water quality tests, was postponed to after the women’s race.
Photo: Bloomberg
The women began their competition at 8am, just as overnight rain was easing, with the triathlon offering spectacular views as they swam in the Seine before racing their bikes and running into central Paris.
A handful of athletes crashed off their bicycles after slipping on the wet cobblestones of the Champs-Elysees.
World No. 1 Beaugrand broke away on the last lap of the run stage and was fueled to the finish line by ecstatic cheers from crowds lining the streets. Switzerland’s Julie Derron won silver and Britain’s Beth Potter took bronze.
The races going ahead would have come as a relief for teams and athletes, as well as for Paris authorities who have promised residents a swimmable Seine as a long-term legacy of the Games, with the triathlon a very public test.
“We have achieved in four years what has been impossible for a century: the Seine is swimmable,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on social media after the race.
The gamble that the river would be clean enough for the triathlon was never guaranteed to pay off as water quality varies widely day-to-day, with rainfall causing concentrations of infection-causing bacteria such as Escherichia coli to rise.
“I have no doubts about the quality of the Seine, we’ve swum in worse water,” Beaugrand said after her victory, adding that scrapping the swim and holding a duathlon — the organizers’ last resort if the river had been too dirty — would have been “shameful” for the sport.
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