(Paris=Yonhye Ran Hyun) Correspondent = The Open Water Swimming World Cup, which was scheduled to be held on the Seine River in Paris, France, on Friday and Saturday (local time), has been canceled due to poor water quality, one year ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”Following recent heavy rainfall in Paris, the water quality of the Seine River remained below the acceptable standard to protect the health of swimmers,” the International Swimming Federation said in a statement on Saturday.” We are disappointed that the Open Water Swimming World Cup has been canceled due to water quality in the Seine, but the health of our athletes must always be our top priority,” said FINA President Hussein Almussalam.”We are excited about the prospect of the world’s best open water athletes competing in the heart of Paris next summer,” he said, but noted that further work is needed to make this happen. “In light of what happened over the weekend, it seems urgent that the Paris Organizing Committee and local authorities have a solid contingency plan in place for next year,” he added. Next year’s Paris Olympic Games, which kick off on July 26 and run through August 11, will feature a swimming marathon and a triathlon (a combination of swimming, cycling, and running) on the Seine. The Paris Organizing Committee and Paris city authorities have said that the amount of rain that has fallen in Paris in recent days has been unusually high and that they are making every effort to ensure that next year’s Games go off without a hitch. The organizers stressed that they will be closely monitoring the water quality of 스포츠토토존 the Seine River, in particular, to ensure that the triathlon test event scheduled for Aug. 17-20 can be held without problems.”In recent weeks, the water quality of the Seine has regularly reached the level required to host the event, which is a significant step forward,” the organizers said in a statement. “By 2024, new infrastructure will be provided to improve stormwater treatment to further improve water quality.”The organizers added that if water quality prevents the Seine from hosting a scheduled event during next year’s Games, it could be rescheduled .Paris Deputy Mayor Pierre Labadin told reporters that samples taken 24 hours earlier showed high levels of E. coli, AFP reported. Labadin added that water tests on the Seine River, which are read in real time by Paris City Hall, showed that conditions had improved this morning. The city is pushing to reopen parts of the Seine to swimming in 2025 for the 2024 Paris lympics. When the Olympics were first held in Paris in 1900, swimming events were held in the Seine, but were banned in 1923 due to poor water quality.