There was chaos in the cycling leg of the women’s triathlon at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Wednesday, as several nasty crashes littered France’s cobblestone streets.
Guam’s Manami Iijima was one of several competitors who took a nasty spill while coming up on a turn when her bike gave way on the slippery road.
The commentary gasped as they showed the nasty spill during the live event.
“Uh oh, that’s not a good one on the cobbles, same corner actually that we saw [Norwegian athlete] Lotte Miller come off,” the Olympics broadcaster said.
Miller crashed twice during the triathlon, eventually requiring medical attention and being unable to finish the race as she cried on the streets.
Conditions were brutal for the triathletes Wednesday, as storms, heat and humidity made the event particularly troubling.
“I don’t really have any words for the last two hours that we just experienced,” Australian triathlete Sophie Linn told reporters, via the Sydney Morning Herald. “That was every single possible adverse weather condition, you know, a high current, rain, heat, humidity like it was just everything and the crowds.”
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Linn was able to finish the challenging athletic test in 1:58,52, which was good enough for 21st place.
“Fortunately, I wasn’t caught up in any crashes,” Linn said. “It was definitely a really technical course with the cobbles super slippery, a lot of [slippery] white lines. A lot of adverse conditions.”
In the lead-up to the event, officials were concerned about water pollution in the Seine River and the race was postponed a day.
There was $1.4 billion spent to depollute the river in preparation for this event, although the pollution levels came down to weather and current more than what they could actually fix.
Still the race went off without much issue in the water other than a tough to manage current for some of the athletes.
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“It was like it was a really weird video game I just played,” Linn added. “I think we got more dirty on the bike [than in the water], to be honest, from all the water coming up off the road. I tried to really ensure that the position within the pack was always near the front to avoid any crashes.”
France’s Cassandre Beaugrand won gold with a 1:54.55 time, just ahead of silver medalist Julie Derron of Switzerland (1:55.01).