Pete de Wet: Triathlon New Zealand CEO on the Men's event being postponed and the quality of the Seine

Will the men's triathlon face the amputation of one leg due to pollution of the River Seine at the Paris Olympics? 

The race was due to take place last night, before the filth from water quality tests forced a postponement to 8.45pm tonight. 

Triathlon New Zealand boss Pete de Wet told Mike Hosking hope springs eternal. 

He said that on some level this was expected but considering the amount they invested into improving the water quality in the Seine, they were hopeful it would sort itself out. 

“We’re just trying to focus on what we can control.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Try in Paris is turning into a shambles. The rivers
do dirty. The event has been delayed, of course, so
where are we actually at? Translin, New Zealand. Boss Platts
withers from Paris morning.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, Mike, it's fifty What are.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Your feelings on this? Is this a mess?

Speaker 2 (00:15):
It's a fairly big distraction, to be honest with you.
But I think at the end of the day, we've
known that there have been some challenges, So it's just
about trying to adapt in the moment and ensure that
we're as prepared as we can be.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
And how literal, where literally are we at? When's the
decision made? And will the decision be final?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
So there's a three thirty am meeting every morning to
discuss the quality of the water and we normally get
communication after that between four and four fifteen ams, so
and that's local times. So at four point fifteen tomorrow
we all know what the pan is for tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
When does it get turned into a duathlon? If it does.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
So, if they have to postpone tomorrow, they do have
another reserve day, which is the second of August, which
is Friday, so they'll do the same thing. There'll be
a meeting on Friday morning at three point thirty at
four fifteen, they'll let us know whether the quality of
the water is good enough to swim in, and if
it isn't, then it'll change thirchiathlon.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Given what we know about the sin historically speaking, was
this always going to be troubled?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
I think we expected that it might be, But if
you consider the amounts of investment that they've made in
trying to improve the quality of the water through all
the filtration systems that they've put in, we were pretty
hopeful that it might sort itself out. But yet it
certainly hasn't helped that we've had the weather that we had,
which was kind of unexpected given they hadn't ready had
that level of grain in July. So yeah, I mean

(01:41):
it's yeah, we're just we're just trying to focus on
what we can control and providing a good environment for athletes,
and you know, that's really what we're trying to do
on the ground.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
How do you explain to an athlete who's training their
whole life for this moment that, sorry, mate, there's only
two events instead of three. It's a duo, not a try.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, I think the athletes are pretty aware of that.
It wouldn't be the first time that they've had opportunities
where water quality hasn't been good and events been turned
to a jaffline. Obviously, it's not an Olympic Games, so
that's pretty unprecedented and they'd certainly be disappointed. But at
the end of the day, we know what's in front
of us. I'm hoping that the athletes will accept that

(02:21):
if that's what comes their way. But yeah, we've got
to remain positive and hope that tomorrow we get these
two triathlons.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Under way and go well. Peter, who's the head of
Trifle on New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
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