Cobblestones, steep stone ramps and currents in the river will provide stiff tests for some of the world’s fittest athletes when they take to Paris’ streets. French trials were even crazier than usual this year.
The triathletes will swim in the Seine, jump on their bikes down the Champs-Elysees and Boulevard Saint-Germain before a fast flat run past iconic landmarks including Grand Palais to finish back on beautiful bridge.
Course organisers said it had been laid out to “amplify” the sport although idiosyncrasies here in Paris add still further complexity for one of the more gruelling disciplines we are going to see at these Games.
First, the Seine river.
If the water is clear when they start, athletes will first swim with a strong current into their face and then turn to fight against it. Positioning will be key.
“Swimming I feel like is the thing most people are nervous about, especially being in an ocean so there’s probably nerves all across,” Olympic champion Flora Duffy of Bermuda told AFP. Again, it is one of those thingswhere if you miss badly on that.
Once out of the river having swum 1.5km in it, they sprint up 32 well-weathered stone steps to reach the bridge and exchange their walking cap for a cycling helmet before taking off on bikes
Despite being a fast, flat seven-lap 40km course – it is also as Parisian for one quarter of the distance it takes over the cobbles. That is before the 10km run.
That unknown, combined with leading hopefuls like Duffy and Tokyo silver medallist Georgia Taylor-Brown shaking off injuries make the women’s race an open book.
“Tokyo was more of a two-person race between myself and Georgia Taylor-Brown, where as here I’d say there are probably six women that could win or be on the podium – so it’s very competitive but quite open,” added Duffy.
Briton Alex Yee and New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde head the men’s race, which takes place a day after the women on July 31. The Brits go into that probably as favourite team
