Rain showered down on athletes, onlookers, can-can dancers and opera singers at the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony on July 26, and more rain over the weekend reportedly drove an uptick in disease-causing bacteria in the Seine river.
This decline in water quality prompted officials to cancel the swimming portion of a training session for the triathlon events, and the men's race, scheduled for Tuesday (July 30), was postponed. Finally, on Wednesday (July 31), both the women's and men's triathlons were allowed to proceed, with athletes plunging headfirst into the Seine for a 0.9-mile (1.5 kilometers) swim before jumping onto bikes for the next leg of the race.
