MOSCOW, July 30. /TASS/. The whole staff of the Office of Paris Mayor should go for another swim in the Seine River without resorting to wearing wetsuits and other measures of precaution, a senior lawmaker from the Russian State Duma (a lower house of the parliament) told TASS on Tuesday.
The press office of World Triathlon announced earlier in the day that triathlon competitions in men’s singles event at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris have been postponed for a day due to a reported poor quality of water in the Seine River.
"I propose that the entire Paris City Hall go for another swim in the Seine," Dmitry Svishchev, a member of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, said.
"However, they should swim without wetsuits and without resorting to other precaution measures," the lawmaker continued. "These people fooled athletes and sports fans for several years but eventually a failure occurred and competitions in the sport of triathlon might not be held at all at the Olympic Games."
On July 29, the organizers of the 2024 Games in France decided to postpone the 2nd training session for triathletes in Paris. Last week they also suspended their 1st training session. Both sessions, according to them, were suspended due to contaminated water in the Seine River, caused by the recent heavy rains in the French capital.
Triathlon competitions at the 2024 Summer Olympics were scheduled for July 30 and 31.
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.
Heavy rains poured down on the French capital in recent days, also marring last Friday's Olympics opening ceremony, which took place along the Seine embankment and Trocadero Square.
On July 17, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip in the Seine to prove that the waters of the river running across the French capital were clean. A week before that, French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera also went to swim in the Seine River.