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We obsessed about poo in the Seine. Once the triathlon began, that wasn’t the problem
By Michael Gleeson
Australian triathlete Sophie Linn thought she had been part of a bizarre video game rather than an Olympic triathlon.
The murky Seine water, where the swimming leg of the triathlons took place, was only cleared for competition at 3.30am, Paris time, when it was declared safe for the races to go ahead on Wednesday.
An emotional Cassandre Beaugrand celebrates her win in the women’s triathlon.Credit: Getty Images
Paris authorities had been working on cleaning up the river, eager to use the iconic setting as an Olympic venue for the triathlons and open water swimming.
But the men’s triathlon had been postponed by a day after heavy rainfall caused sewage issues, and there were concerns the events could even be reduced to duathlons because of poor water quality. Australia’s Matt Hauser, who finished seventh in 1 hour, 44.17 joked afterwards that he would shower in champagne and let the alcohol wash off the Seine water.
But after obsessing about poo in the Seine for months, it was not dirty water that caused the most damage in a calamitous women’s triathlon. It was the bike leg that claimed most victims.
Powerful, swirling currents made for a chaotic swim, and overnight rain left the cobblestones so slippery that riders fell in regular clusters.
The French winner, Cassandre Beaugrand, received a hero’s ovation as she crossed line for gold in 1:54.55, but it was devastation for the athletes who fell. One of them, Jeanne Lehair from Luxembourg, sat sobbing beside the road after she crashed, comforted by an official.
“I don’t really have any words for the last two hours that we just experienced. That was every single possible adverse weather condition, you know, a high current, rain, heat, humidity, like it was just everything and the crowds,” Linn said.
“It wasn’t particularly clear under the water. The current was probably the biggest factor in this whole experience. It was surely the strongest current I’ve ever swum in. In the warm-up lap when I was at the far buoy. I was like, I don’t think I’m gonna make it back to the pontoon, I’m gonna have to get into kayak during my warm-up.”
The ride was where the real carnage happened with bunches of riders going down on the slippery stones and white road markings. Four riders crashed out completely, unable to get back on their bikes.
“Fortunately, I wasn’t caught up in any crashes. It was definitely a really technical course with the cobbles super slippery, a lot of [slippery] white lines. A lot of adverse conditions,” Linn said.
“It was like it was a really weird video game I just played. I think we got more dirty on the bike [than in the water] to be honest from all the water coming up off the road. I tried to really ensure that the position within the pack was always near the front to avoid any crashes.”
Linn, who finished 21st in 1:58.52, said she had exceeded her expectations.
“Obviously I put my heart on the line for Australia, but I enjoyed it whilst doing it. Every time I saw my family, I waved and smiled at them. And that was like my goal to be able to do that.”
Her compatriot, Natalie Van Coevorden was lucky to avoid falling in a crash when a cluster of riders fell in front of her. It cost her a lot of time, but she didn’t fall. She finished 42nd in 2:03.01.
“I got drowned about 100 times in that swim so I probably drank about 10 bottles of water,” she said.
By the time the men’s race began, the sun had broken through and dried the streets, so there was none of the carnage on the bikes that marked the women’s race. Despite that, Hauser still got caught up in a tangle of riders and went to ground in transition.
He had made a bold tactical choice in the swim, choosing to carve away on his own in the middle of the Seine to one side of the Invalides bridge’s middle pylon while the rest of the field went wide.
“That was really good, to get a bit of clear water, and I knew that picking to the right of the pontoon was probably a bit of an advantage for me,” he said.
It worked. Hauser emerged in third place out of the water, but after his bike tumble he drifted slightly. He remained in touch with the leaders until the run when he powered from 18th to finish seventh.
In a dramatic climax, Briton Alex Yee, the Tokyo silver medallist, was trailing New Zealander Hayden Wilde by 70 metres for most of the run, but with about a kilometre to go he kicked up a gear and surged to the lead to win gold in 1:43.33.
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