Olympics organisers remain "hopeful" triathlon events will be able to proceed tomorrow after the men's competition, originally scheduled for this morning, was postponed due to water quality in the River Seine.
Swimming training for the triathletes was cancelled on Sunday and yesterday and the decision has been taken to move the men's race, which had been due to start at 8am local time (7am Irish time) today, to tomorrow.
However, further postponements or cutting the swimming section to turn the competitions into a duathlon remain a possibility.
More than €1bn was spent on cleaning up the river in preparation for the Games, but organisers knew heavy rain in the days before a competition could cause the levels of the harmful bacteria E. Coli to rise.
Aurelie Merle, executive director of sports competitions at Paris 2024, said the health of the athletes remained the priority of the International Olympic Committee, and that the tests carried out on the Seine were "not sufficient on the entirety of the course".
She said: "That's why we immediately informed the athletes and the coaches as soon as the decision was taken at 4am in the morning.
"You have of course been witnessing that we have had meteorological events which were beyond our control that took place, such as the rainfall over Paris on the 26 and 27 (July) affecting our water quality, which compelled us to reschedule this event.
"The whole world has witnessed that it rained heavily in Paris during the opening ceremony, but also the day after.
"We are quite hopeful because as you can see the weather conditions have been quite good over the past few days with the return of the sun and quite high temperatures, which will have a positive impact on the water quality combined with all the infrastructure that has been put in place.
"So we are hopeful that we can organise these two competition events tomorrow."
Merle said that of the four samples taken along the Seine one was below the threshold, two were "just slightly above" and one "a bit more."
She said: "I think it is key to understand that the sample is taken 24 hours before. I mean, actually, we even reduce that time to 21 hours and 30 minutes in line with World Triathlon to ensure that we have the most accurate information."
"From the results we can tell we are very close to the threshold. We know that the Seine and the heat have a very strong impact on the quality of the water, and that's why we feel, because we are so close, this morning, we hopefully believe that the water quality will be better," she added.
The UK's Alex Yee is one of the favourites for gold in the men's race, while Beth Potter, also from the UK, is the reigning women's world champion.
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