Paris 2024 Olympics: the coach in the Seine, Gregorio Paltrinieri no

Seine Swimming

Despite having been told that they will be able to try out the race course that will host the 10 kilometers, namely the stretch of the Seine between pont Alexandre III and pont de l’Alma, at the same times as the races scheduled for Thursday and Friday from 7:30 a.m., swimmers Giulia Gabbrielleschi, Ginevra Taddeucci, Domenico Acerenza and Gregorio Paltrinieri are finishing their preparation at a pool on the Olympic circuit. The decision é was made by the national team’s technical coordinator Stefano Rubaudo, coach Fabrizio Antonelli and the athletes themselves in consultation with the federal leadership.

"We trust the organizers and the medical-scientific professionals in charge of the Seine’s controls, but we prefer to avoid risks of contamination of any kind by testing the race course,” stresses technician Fabrizio Antonelli. “We have carried out specific training for swimming pro and countercurrent and have studied the race course in detail. We are ready to face opponents and environmental difficulties’’.

In place of the athletes, to transfer data and sensations, dived technical coordinator Stefano Rubaudo, first gold medalist at the Italian cross-country Europeans in Terracina in 1991. "I ran half a lap and received confirmation of what we knew,” he says, “The water has no taste nor smell, the currents are very strong. Against the current it takes three times as long to run the same stretch on the opposite side. They widened the passage under the bridge which created a funnel during the triathlon. Now I am going to transfer the information to the team to better plan the race tactics".

Trials in the Seine were opened by four juniors from France who led the way caught on camera; then there were some athletes who swam, others who preferred to avoid.
Confirmed the program-race: Thursday; the women’s 10 kilometers and Friday; the men’s 10 kilometers; both starting at 7:30 a.m.