Swimming in the Seine at the Paris Paralympic Games

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There was an uproar from the global swimming community and the general public, both domestically and internationally, about the poor water quality of the Seine during the Olympic triathlon and Olympic 10K Marathon Swim. Triathletes and marathon swimmers got sick and complained publicly.

But additional races were held this Monday in the Seine at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.

The para triathlon was delayed one day due to rain, but thousands of spectators saw a wonderful celebration of athletic performances held on a beautiful day in the center of Paris under blue skies (photo below by American para tri coach John Dussliere).

11 different categories of the Para triathlon (explained below) were held, each starting off with a 750 meter swim in the Seine on a calm course without winds, followed a 20 km bike segment down the Champs-Élysées, Avenue Montaigne and Pont des Invalides, and a 5  km run to the Quai d’Orsay back to the finish at the Pont Alexandre III Bridge.

Podium finishers (listed below) represented the USA, Great Britain, Spain, France, Netherlands, Australia and Italy. The following abbreviations are used: PT refers to para triathlon, WC refers to wheelchair athletes, S refers to standing, and VI refers to visual impairment.

While every para triathlete was inspirational and had very inspirational backstories, there was one older para triathlete among the 120 athletes who medaled – and who has also completed a channel swim.

42-year-old Mohamed Lahna (@mohamedlahna) from Casablanca, Morocco is now a naturalized American citizen who lives in Hayward, California. He represented Morocco at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games where he won a bronze in the PTS2 category and represented the USA at the the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games where he won a silver.

He has been around the world competing in triathlons (including the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in 13 hours 19 minutes and the Norseman Xtreme Triathlon in 15 hours 27 minutes) and para triathlons around the world (Brazil, Norway, France, Spain, Great Britain, Canada, USA, Japan, UAE, Italy, Australia, Netherlands, New Zealand, China, and Hungary) as well a ultra runs (250 m Marathon de Sables across the Sahara Desert) and a 14.4 km Strait of Gibraltar wetsuit crossing.

Looking back at the start of his interest in physical activity, it is incredible how much Lahna has accomplished.

Born without a right femur and fibula in his native Morocco, Lahna was told that it was too dangerous to run.

So what did the young Lahna do? He played sports on crutches.

At the age of 6, he went to an elementary school for children with disabilities where he received a leg made of wood and leather. The wooden leg did not bend, but then, neither did Lahna give up his interest in sports throughout high school.

In 2002 at the age of 20, his life changed after he received his first running prosthetic. Five years later, he rode his first bicycle – and then took off cycling throughout the Atlas Mountains in Morocco as a 25-year-old. He was relentless in his pursuits, from wheelchair racing to completing his first triathlon with crutches.

In 2009, he found himself at a Challenged Athletes Foundation in the U.S. and in July 2020, he crossed the 14.4 km Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Point Cires, Morocco in a wetsuit in 4 hours 26 minutes. The 28-year-old had the experiences to move into the elite triathlon world.

When para triathlon was added to the 2016 Rio Paralympics calendar, Lahna was ready. In Rio de Janeiro, he won a bronze medal. The future looked brighter than ever as he entered the next Paralympic quadrennial cycle and was applying for U.S. citizenship. He started to train USA national para triathlon team at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs with eyes on the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

But, then obstacles kept creeping into his life.

World Triathlon decided the PTS2 category would not be one of the para triathlon categories at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. It was a crushing blow that suddenly stopped him in 2018. But he transitioned to working full-time with Visa and moved to Hayward, California where he and his wife raised three children in the Bay Area.

No more Paralympics…or so he thought.

Then, another call came where he learned that his PTS2 category would be competed at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. But now with a family and work, he had decisions to make. Could he make another Olympic dream come true with full-time work, a young family, and training to compete at the highest level?

Given all the other obstacles he has faced and overcome in his life, the-then 39-year-old decided to continue forward.

But in his first race back after his planned retirement, he finished last in his category at the 2021 World Championships. He kept on plugging away and by the 2023 World Triathlon Para Championships in Pontevedra, Spain, he finished second and qualified for Paris.

This last Monday, he finished second, winning a silver medal.

Incredible. Inspirational.

Those are the kinds of stories that we hear time and time again among the Paralympic athletes from those who were born with disabilities to those who served in combat or experienced accidents of all sorts.

Even when the practice swims were cancelled in the Seine and the dates of the races were changed, the athletes adapted, did not complain, and moved on with the decisions and accepted the conditions that they had no control over.

As in life.

Champions all.

Coach John Dussliere summed up the para athletes well, “Able-bodied athletes come up with good stories. Para athletes live great stories.”

For more information about Lahna, visit mohamedlahna.com.

Men’s PTWC Podium Finishers