The Test Event That Set the Stage
When triathletes lined up for the Paris 2024 test event back in August 2023, nobody quite knew what to expect. The Seine River—off-limits to swimmers for over a century—was about to host its first competitive swimming event in living memory. French officials had spent years and billions of euros preparing for this moment.
The test event delivered mixed results. While the individual races went ahead as planned, the Mixed Team Relay had to be converted into a duathlon format after water quality readings came in too high. Athletes ran and biked but never touched the water that day.
“The course is great, it goes very fast by bike, it’s technical,” French world champion Vincent Luis told reporters after completing the course. His teammate Emma Lombardi finished fourth, giving the home crowd something to cheer about despite the water quality concerns hanging over the venue.
$1.5 Billion to Clean a River
Here’s the thing about the Seine—it wasn’t always this dirty. But decades of urban runoff, combined sewer systems, and industrial pollution had turned Paris’s most famous waterway into something you definitely wouldn’t want to swim in.
The cleanup effort was staggering in scope. French authorities constructed a massive underground basin capable of holding 50,000 cubic meters of stormwater. They upgraded treatment plants along the river’s path through the city. Old pipes were replaced. New monitoring systems went online.
Total cost? About 1.4 billion euros—roughly $1.5 billion USD. That’s a lot of money to make a river swimmable again, but Paris had staked its Olympic reputation on pulling this off.
Race Day Drama in Paris 2024
Fast forward to late July 2024. Heavy rains had pounded the Paris region in the days leading up to the triathlon events, and everyone following the sport knew what that meant—bacteria levels were spiking.
The men’s race, originally scheduled for Tuesday, July 30th, got postponed. Athletes who had trained for years toward this specific moment suddenly found themselves waiting, checking their phones for updates, wondering if they’d get to race at all.
Then came Wednesday morning. Test results showed the Seine had cleared enough to meet safety standards. Both races would proceed back-to-back.
Beaugrand Delivers for France
Cassandre Beaugrand carried the weight of an entire nation on her shoulders that Wednesday morning. The world number one had the talent, but performing at home with millions watching is a different kind of pressure entirely.
She handled it beautifully.
Beaugrand emerged from the Seine swim in good position, navigated the technical bike course through central Paris, then pulled away on the final lap of the run. She crossed the finish line in 1:54:55, becoming the first French athlete ever to win an Olympic triathlon medal.
Behind her, Switzerland’s Julie Derron claimed silver just six seconds back. Britain’s Beth Potter, always a threat in these races, rounded out the podium with bronze.
“I wasn’t very worried about swimming in the Seine because we swam last year and no one was sick after that,” Beaugrand said afterward, flashing a confident smile. “I was confident we could swim today.”
Yee’s Incredible Comeback
If the women’s race showcased dominance, the men’s event was pure drama.
New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde looked to have the gold medal locked up. He’d built a 15-second lead during the run—an eternity in elite triathlon—and seemed to be cruising toward the biggest win of his career.
Alex Yee had other plans.
The British athlete, already an Olympic gold medalist from Tokyo’s mixed relay, started chipping away at Wilde’s advantage. With 1.5 kilometers remaining, Yee was still well back. Spectators watching assumed it was too little, too late.
Then something clicked. Yee found another gear nobody knew he had. He closed the gap with stunning speed, caught Wilde on the final bend, and powered past him to take gold in 1:43:33.
Wilde finished six seconds back in silver. Leo Bergere gave France another medal with bronze, finishing just four seconds behind Wilde.
The win made Yee the only triathlete in Olympic history to claim both an individual gold and a relay gold.
What the Results Mean for the Sport
Paris 2024 proved something important: you can rehabilitate an urban river for competitive swimming. It’s expensive, it’s complicated, and it requires years of planning—but it can be done.
For the athletes, these races delivered moments that will be replayed for decades. Beaugrand’s coronation as the new queen of women’s triathlon. Yee’s impossible comeback. The drama of racing through the heart of Paris with the Eiffel Tower visible from the course.
The Seine still has a way to go before it becomes a regular swimming destination for Parisians. But the Olympics showed what’s possible when a city commits to cleaning up its waterways.
And for triathlon fans, that’s worth celebrating—regardless of what the bacteria counts said the day before.
