Paris 2024: Olympic training in Seine authorised after postponement

Paris Olympics organisers have confirmed that a training session in the river Seine had been authorised, a day after cancelling another session due to pollution.

Ireland's gold and bronze medal winner Daniel Wiffen is due to take part in the 10k open water event, but had confirmed that he would not be involved in the practice session due to water quality concerns.

"I've decided that I'm not going to swim in the Seine until race day, I don’t want to have to deal with any illness before the race. It’s going to be a very new thing because I’m going in blind, it’s going to be a fun one," Wiffen said.

The Seine has been a key focus of attention during the Games ever since it was chosen for the triathlon and marathon swimming - consistently failing water quality tests despite a €1.4 billion upgrade to improve the Paris sewerage and water treatment systems.

After an overnight meeting, the international swimming federation World Aquatics and the organising committee said that the athletes' training would take place as planned.

On Tuesday, organisers scrapped training in the river for the fifth time since the start of the Games on 28 July.

The triathlon was badly disrupted by poor bacterial readings last week, with all swim training sessions cancelled and the men's individual race postponed by 24 hours until Wednesday.

The open water swimming events, which run for 10 kilometres in a loop around the Seine, are to be held on Thursday and Friday.

If the water is unfit on those days, organisers plan to move the competition to the Vaires-sur-Marne lake where the canoeing events are being held.