Paris 2024 Triathlon: The route will cross emblematic places of the French capital

The big bet of the next Games is to make the most of the city to host different events in its streets. The idea that the public could walk the streets and cross paths with different events and athletes led to the making of the Seine River, its bridges and stairs an innovative stadium.

As announced several months ago, the opening ceremony will be the first in history to be held outside a stadium and now other competitions will also be held on the water. In this case, the triathlon will take place on the Alexander III Bridge, considered the most beautiful and one of the most emblematic in the city. In front of The Invalids, athletes will swim across the Seine and cross the finish line after touring Paris.

The sport will take place on three different days. On Tuesday, July 30, 2024, the men’s race will be held, the 31st will be the women’s race. Both will start at 8:00 in the morning and there will be 55 athletes per gender. The mixed relay, which will be held for the second time after its premiere in Tokyo, will take place on August 5. There, 18 teams of four athletes, two men and two women, will compete.

In relation to the mixed relay, each athlete will have to swim 300 meters, cycle 5.8 kilometers in two laps of 2.9 km and 1.8 km of running in two laps of 900 m in a square between the two bridges and the two sides of the Seine.

These tests present a major challenge for the Parisian authorities, since they committed themselves to cleaning the waters so that they are suitable for bathing in 2024.

After swimming downstream from the Alexander III Bridge to the Invalides Bridge, the cycling sector will begin. There, the triathletes will take seven laps of a circuit that will pass through the Grand Palais, passing through the Champs-Elysées and ending at the Quai d’Orsay. The 10-kilometer race will take place in four laps of a circuit almost all along the right bank of the Seine. A staging that the organizers have been dreaming about for a long time.

The circuit will be put to the test this year at the test event from August 17 to 20.

CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

The qualifying period began in May of last year and there will be time until May of next year. The criterion has already been approved by the IOC and the Executive Board of the World Triathlon.

Of the 110 athletes (55 men and 55 women), France has already secured its place (two men and two women) given its hosting status. On the other hand, Great Britain also won its place in the Mixed Relay Triathlon World Championships in Canada last year.

In July of this year, two more places per gender will be awarded at the Hamburg World Cup. Those countries that have not achieved their place by then will secure two places per gender when the Mixed Relay Olympic Classification Ranking closes in March of next year. From there, the first six countries will go to Paris. In addition, there will be two more countries awarded with those that finish in the first places of the Mixed Relay Olympic Qualification Event, which will take place between April 15 and May 27, 2024. The Tripartite Commission may also grant a maximum of two invitations to countries.

In relation to the Individual Olympic Classification, there will be 26 places available. For those countries with two places already secured by any of the previous classification routes, the two best athletes in both genders will not be considered in this ranking. The eligibility criteria for any of the athletes for all of the above locations will be the first 140 places in the Individual Olympic Qualification Ranking.