The media – just as it has every four years – has focused on the water quality at the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim.

The Seine has been a point of contention for some time now, especially when it rains and the amount of rainfall overwhelms the Paris sewage system. But until now, there has been no announcement of a Plan B.

Now apparently there is a Plan B.

If the Seine is deemed to be too dirty for the Olympic triathlon and the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim, then the triathletes and marathon swimmers will compete 35 km west of central Paris at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium (Nautical Stadium Olympic d’île-De-France) in Torcy, Île-de-France.

The stadium has two different courses. The triathletes and marathon swimmers will use the rowing course.

Schedule

The Olympic rowing schedule is packed with various rowing events from July 27th to August 3rd, but the venue is available after August 4th. The triathlon events are currently scheduled for July 30th (women’s individual race), July 31st (men’s individual race), and August 5th (mixed relay), so the triathletes will have to juggle their taper if the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium will be used.

Because the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim is currently scheduled on August 8th (women) and August 9th (men), there should be minimal impact on the marathon swimmers – other than having to deal with a bit longer bus ride from the Olympic Village to the rowing venue in Île-de-France.

Preparations

What is potentially interesting is that the marathon swimmers may not have the opportunity to train in either venue prior to the actual competition. For experienced marathon swimmers, this is not such a major deal as they have experience in dealing with all kinds of courses and changing conditions. However, for the pool swimmers who qualify via a 800m or 1500m freestyle qualification method, the first time that they will be experiencing a high-level intense open water swimming competition will be on the first few loops of the course. This could significantly and ultimately impact the race results.

History May Repeat Itself

There is precedence for the marathon swim held in a rowing basin. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the marathon swimmers competed in the rowing basin where they swam four loops near the perimeter of the rectangular venue (course on the right in the illustration below).

Historical Olympic Open Water Swimming Venues

In the modern Olympic Games, swimming events were held in various open bodies of water that included the following:

• 1896 Athens Olympics: Bay of Zea off the Piraeus coast, Aegean Sea, Greece
• 1900 Paris Olympics: Seine River, Paris, France
• 1904 St. Louis Olympics: Man-made pond near Skinker and Wydown Boulevards, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.
• 1906 Athens Intercalated Games: Neo Phaliron Bay off the coast of Athens, Greece
• 2008 Beijing Olympics: Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, 2 hours outside Beijing, China
• 2012 London Olympics: Serpentine in London, Great Britain
• 2016 Rio Olympics: Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• 2020 Tokyo Olympics: Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo Bay, Japan
• 2024 Paris Olympics: Pont Alexandre III on the Seine in Paris or Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium in Île-de-France

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