Double Irish Olympic medallist Daniel Wiffen is "feeling good" ahead of the gruelling 10km swim on Friday, despite concerns over water quality in the River Seine.
Wiffen is set to become the only member of Team Ireland to compete in the famed French river, which until these Games had been off-limit to swimmers for a century due to poor water quality.
Organisers received some welcome news today when tests indicated the water quality was good enough for the women's 10km race to go ahead, where Dutch swimmer Sharon van Rouwendaal replicated her 2016 exploits by taking gold in a 2:03.34, five and a half seconds clear of Australia’s Moesha Johnson in second.
Wiffen, fresh from gold and bronze exploits in the 800m and 1500m freestyle respectively, will swap the La Defense Arena for the Seine.
On Wednesday, along with dozens of other marathon swimmers, the Armagh man tested the conditions in the river during a two-hour swim session.
It was his only opportunity to familiarise himself with the course, after the previous day’s session was cancelled due to unsafe pollution levels.
"He was anticipating maybe the water tasting strange, because so much has been said about it, but he was fine," Swim Ireland’s High Performance Director Jon Rudd told RTÉ News.
"The water quality readings at the moment are pretty good as long as we don't get heavy rain between now and Friday morning. It will only get better."
Cleaning up the long-polluted Seine is one of the key objectives of the Olympics for French authorities. More than €1.4 billion has been invested in wastewater infrastructure in recent years.
However, even with those efforts, water quality has been a constant concern throughout the Games. Last week, training sessions for the swim leg of the triathlon were cancelled and the men's race postponed, after tests indicated bacteria levels in the river were too high.
Despite those challenges, Rudd said he still thinks it’s a "good idea" to hold the 10km marathon race in the Seine.
"If you've been down to the venue, you can see why they'd want to do it," he said.
"That particular area of the Seine is absolutely iconic. So the spectacle of the race taking place in the river is something special.
"I think, if the readings are poor when it comes to it, they need to make a decision. But if the readings suggest that the athletes are safe, it will be something that they'll always remember, and so will we."
Organisers have said the marathon swimming races could be relocated, if needed, to the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in the greater Paris region, which already hosts rowing and canoeing competitions and can accommodate up to 15,000 spectators.
There had been some suggestion last week that Wiffen may not compete if the event venue was moved, but Rudd said Wiffen will make a decision "at that moment in time."
"At the moment, he's very focused on doing this event and he's practised in the river and he's good with that," he said.
"If you move to the other venue, theoretically it would be even better for him because there are no currents and it’s pretty flat. So yeah, I would hope that he'd have another go, but no one's going to twist his arm. He'll do what he needs to do."
Wiffen has never competed in an open water 10km race before, but Rudd believes the 23-year-old has a fighting chance.
"He's dangerous in this. I mean, he's maybe a little bit tactically naive compared to some of the other guys. But he's got all the tools and he's one of the best distance swimmers in the world.
"And it's still water. So it'll be it'll be so interesting to see what happens."
Further analysis of the water will be carried out overnight, with a final decision on the men’s event expected at 4am on Friday.
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