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Paris 2024 Olympics 10k
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San Francisco, CACharter Member
Hi Folks,
Long time no see! I'm back in the bay and in the pool, though perimenopause has been hard on me and I'm balancing my swimming with weightlifting and sensible eating trying to regain some quality of life. Was following the chatter about the Olympic 10k marathons and curious to hear what people thought about the Seine, the various complaints about water quality/currents, approaches of pool swimmers vs. open water marathoners, etc.
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I'll start: this was of great interest to me because I watched the 10k in person during the London Olympics and saw Ous Mellouli pull off his double victory (1500 in the pool and 10k in the Serpentine). Mellouli's accomplishment made me question whether these Olympic swims truly count as an open water experience--the Serpentine was not exactly the sort of venue many of us have swum in. And Daniel Wiffen's disgruntlement over the currents and conditions in the Seine made me realize that pool swimmers, albeit super fast and fit and amazingly accomplished, don't seem to have the same appreciation that open water marathoners have for being in nature and accepting the conditions as they are. Sharon van Rouwendaal seemed to take it in stride, but she lives and breathes open water racing.
The other thing I thought was whether more cities would clean up their rivers so that more folks can have long swims in rivers without worrying about water quality. Like many of you, I've swum in the Willamette, the Charles, and the Thames, and I would like to see more of that happening around the world.
Melanie Barratt's amazing accomplishment in crossing the channel made me wonder why there are no OW events in the Paralympic Games. I know several fantastic open water swimmers with disabilities. Is there concern for safety? For sighting around other competitors?
I'm a fan of Wiffen (his "calling the win" gesture gets me every time), but I don't understand why you would complain about the conditions when open water swimming when they are fair for everyone. The different conditions are the whole point of choosing where you swim.
The only complaint I do understand is the water quality, but I really think they did a great job of clearing up the Seine. It's very respectable that they spent ~1.5 billion on clearing it up just for the open water and triathlon events. If they are spending that amount of money on it, it's clear that they care about improving the quality of the Seine in the long term which is an attitude I really like.
Unfortunately for them and us, they had bad weather and the water quality fell just below the standard on the day which meant they got terrible publicity for something they actually did really good. Now other Olympic hosts will unfortunately probably not undergo the same process for their rivers.
Same here re the complaints. Like we all know, the zen cliché is true: you really don't cross the same river twice, so in an event like this you are competing against others who face the same conditions. True, some people might catch a lucky current, but that's the essence of open water, no?
I wonder where Los Angeles will hold the OW event. An ocean swim?
That would be awesome, I hope so!