Marten Van Riel is a legitimate medal contender in the men’s triathlon at the Olympics but he will have to wait at least one more day to compete after Tuesday’s event was postponed. He is absolutely furious with how this entire sewage-based saga has gone down over the last few days, weeks and months.
The athletes are forced to sit around and wait for an event that may or may not happen as planned— or at all.
France spent $1.5 billion (!!) to clean up the Seine in Paris ahead of the Olympics. Not only did the famous “river” play a huge role in the Opening Ceremonies, it is supposed to host then swimming leg of the men’s and women’s triathlon as well as the swimming marathon.
However, swimming in the Seine has been illegal for more than 120 years due to fecal bacteria. Heavy rains overwhelm Paris’ infrastructure and literal sewage leaks into the city’s most famous body of water.
The expensive cleanup effort was an epic failure. Open water swing practice was canceled on Sunday and Monday due to unsafe conditions. The men’s triathlon on Tuesday was also postponed to Wednesday.
Triathlon is in jeopardy at the Olympics.
If bumping it back by one day doesn’t work, which it certainly seems like it will not based on the forecast for the week, they’ll hold the men’s and women’s competitions on Friday. If it is not safe to swim in the Seine by Friday, the Olympics will hold the triathlon as a duathlon— with only biking and running.
Paris officials refused to apologize to the athletes and blamed conditions outside of their control, weather and climate change, for the high levels of E. coli. They also said that a downgrade to a duathlon would not be unfair to any athletes, even though they prepared for a triathlon and some athletes are better in the water than on land.
Marten Van Riel had/has hopes to podium in the men’s triathlon after finishing sixth in Rio and fourth in Tokyo. The 31-year-old Belgian athlete is furious with how this entire situation has been handled and responded back to World Triathlon’s announcement of postponement on Instagram.
Van Riel believes that the people in charge made it abundantly clear where their priorities lie.
“If the priority was the health of the athletes this event would have been moved to another location a long time ago. We are just puppets in a puppetshow. Duathlon is no triathlon and changing the day like that in the middle of the night is disrespectful to the years of preparation of the athletes and to all (y)our fans that were going to watch live or on tv. What an appearance for triathlon on the biggest scene!”
— Marten Van Riel
British star Max Stapley also chimed in with a comment of his own.
“Pathetic. Zero respect for athlete welfare and investment. Not being able to hold a triathlon in the country with the most tried and tested venues in the world is inexcusable.”
— Max Stapley
The Brit and Belgian are not the only triathletes who are outraged. Every single person, male and female, who traveled to France to compete in the event has been on the wrong end of unfair treatment.
Paris has had trouble with its poop water for months (more like 123 years) and has been consistently unable to get the bacteria under control. The Olympics could have and should have moved the triathlon to a different venue before this was the issue that it is. Real shame!