PARIS (AP) — Concerns about the water quality in the Seine River led officials to call off the swimming portion of an Olympic triathlon training session for a second straight day Monday.
Organizers overseeing the event at the Paris Games are optimistic that triathletes will be able to swim in the city’s famed waterway when the competition starts Tuesday.
The sport's governing body, World Triathlon, its medical team and city officials are banking on sunny weather and higher temperatures to bring levels of E. coli and other bacteria below the necessary limits to stage the swim portion of the race, which also includes biking and running.
World Triathlon made the decision to cancel the swim workout early Monday following a meeting over water quality in the Seine, which is closely linked to the weather. Rain deluged Friday’s opening ceremony and showers persisted Saturday, forcing some tennis matches and the skateboarding competition to be postponed.
The representatives for Paris 2024 and triathlon’s international federation said tests conducted in the Seine on Sunday showed water quality levels leading into the training session that “did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held.” The delegation blamed the recent rain.
French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra told French news channel CNEWS on Monday that officials are “absolutely serene about all of this.” The plans they put in place to control bacteria levels in the river have been effective, but the weather is beyond their control, she said.
The recent rain contributed to the water quality concerns, but she said she believed things would improve.
“I am confident in the fact that we will be able to be there tomorrow for the men’s triathlon event," she said.
Organizers say the backup plan is to postpone the events and, if elevated bacteria levels persist, the swimming portion of the race will be abandoned and the athletes will compete in a duathlon.
Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century in big part because of the poor water quality. Organizers have invested 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to prepare the river ahead of the Olympics.
In addition to the swimming part of the men's triathlon Tuesday, the women's triathlon Wednesday and the triathlon mixed relay Monday, the Seine is expected be used for the marathon swimming competitions on Aug. 8 and 9.
Daily water quality tests in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements. Some of the measures put in place to improve the water quality include the construction of a giant basin to capture excess rainwater and keep wastewater from flowing into the river, renovating sewer infrastructure and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
High levels of E. coli in water can indicate contamination from sewage. Most strains are harmless and some live in the intestines of healthy people and animals. But others can be dangerous. Even a mouthful of contaminated water can lead to diarrhea, and the germ can cause illnesses such as infections in the urinary tract or in the intestines.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a very public swim in the river about two weeks before Olympic events were set to start, hoping to ease fears about the long-polluted waterway being clean enough to host swimming competitions.
AP Health Writer Devna Bose contributed from Jackson, Mississippi.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
Watercraft and buoys sit along the Seine river as the triathlon event venue on the Pont Alexandre III bridge stands in the background at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A tourist boat makes its way along the Seine River by the Alexandre III bridge, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Yasin Dar)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Former Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo González has fled into exile after being granted asylum in Spain, delivering a major blow to millions who placed their hopes in his upstart campaign to end two decades of single-party rule.
The surprise departure of the man considered by Venezuela’s opposition and several foreign governments to be the legitimate winner of July’s presidential race was announced late Saturday night by Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez. He is expected to arrive in Spain on Sunday.
She said the government decided to grant González safe passage out of the country, just days after ordering his arrest, to help restore “the country’s political peace and tranquility.”
Neither González nor opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has commented. But Spain’s center-left government said the decision to leave Venezuela was González's alone and he departed on a plane sent by the country's air force. González had stayed at the Spanish embassy in Caracas before leaving.
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares told Spanish national broadcaster RTVE that his government will grant González political asylum as he has requested. Albares spoke from Oman while en route to China with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on a state visit.
“I have been able to speak to (González) and once he was aboard the airplane he expressed his gratitude toward the Spanish government and Spain,” Albares said. “Of course, I told him we were pleased that he is well and on his way to Spain, and I reiterated the commitment of our government to the political rights of all Venezuelans.”
Sánchez said in a speech before González's departure was announced that the opposition leader was “a hero whom Spain is not going to abandon.”
The European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, in a statement Sunday described it as "a sad day for democracy in Venezuela,” and also disclosed that the Dutch had been involved in helping González.
“Faced with repression, political persecution and direct threats to his safety and freedom, after being given hospitality at the residence of the Netherlands in Caracas until Sept. 5, political leader and presidential candidate Edmundo González has had to request political asylum and accept the protection offered by Spain,” he said.
Borrell added that González “appears to be the winner of the presidential elections” and that the EU will maintain its support of the Venezuelan people “in their democratic aspirations.”
In a letter sent Sunday to lawmakers, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Caspar Veldkamp said that the Netherlands had given González refuge shortly after the election at its embassy. He added that González said at the beginning of September that he wanted to leave the country “and continue his fight from Spain.”
González, a 75-year-old former diplomat, was a last-minute stand-in when Machado was banned from running. Previously unknown to most Venezuelans, his campaign nonetheless rapidly ignited the hopes of millions of Venezuelans desperate for change after a decade-long economic freefall.
While President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner of the July vote, most Western governments, including Spain, have yet to recognize his victory and are instead demanding that authorities publish a breakdown of votes. Meanwhile, tally sheets collected by opposition volunteers from over two-thirds of the electronic voting machines indicate that González won by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
The tally sheets have long been considered the ultimate proof of election results in Venezuela. In previous presidential elections, the National Electoral Council published online the results of each of the more than 30,000 voting machines but the Maduro-controlled panel did not release any data this time, blaming an alleged cyberattack mounted by its opponents from North Macedonia.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab, a staunch Maduro ally, sought González's arrest after he failed to appear three times in connection with a criminal investigation into what it considers an act of electoral sabotage.
Saab told reporters that the voting records the opposition shared online were forged and an attempt to undermine the National Electoral Council.
Experts from the United Nations and the Carter Center, which at the invitation of Maduro’s government observed the election, determined the results announced by electoral authorities lacked credibility. In a statement critical of the election, the U.N. experts stopped short of validating the opposition’s claim to victory, but they said the voting records it published online appear to exhibit all of the original security features.
Exiled opposition politician Franco Casella told RTVE that González would continue to campaign against the regime from abroad in what he called a dual leadership role with Machado, who Casella said remains in hiding in Venezuela.
He said he understood that some people who opposed Maduro might feel “orphaned” by González's departure but, he said, "this is going to be capitalized positively .... and my message is that this is not the time for tears, it is time for us to remain united against the dictatorship.”
Spain has been a major point of exodus for Venezuelans, particularly those leading opposition to Maduro’s regime. They include Leopoldo López, who fled to Spain to reunite with his family in 2020, and Antonio Ledezma, who left in 2017.
Some 44,000 Venezuelans immigrated to Spain in the first six months of this year. The last government statistics from 2022 said that some 212,000 Venezuelans were then residing in Spain.
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Goodman reported from Miami and Wilson from Barcelona, Spain. Mike Corder contributed from The Hague.
FILE - Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez waves to supporters during a political event at a square in the Hatillo municipality of Caracas, Venezuela, June 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
