Olympic triathlon
“The current was so strong – I really panicked”
Swimming in the Seine at the Olympics was an unforgettable experience for Julia Hauser and Lisa Perterer, for better or for worse. The two Austrians finished 32nd and 50th in the triathlon in the beaten field. The swim proved to be their undoing, less because of possible bacteria than because of the current.
The day had already begun for Hauser and Perterer at four o'clock in the morning. That's when they heard the news: the triathlon competitions were taking place, including a swim in the Seine. No problem for Hauser: "Of course we had to be prepared for the competition." The Viennese would probably have secretly preferred the swimming to have been canceled and the triathlon to have been turned into a duathlon. After all, the first sub-discipline is her worst.
There was no time, no room, for concerns about the water quality. At 8 o'clock sharp, they plunged into the Seine near the Pont Invalides. On a slightly different course than originally assumed. The entire field was pushed to the far right bank right from the start, and swimming became the expected problem. "The current was extremely strong, I kept getting pushed to the side," Hauser complained. As a result, the Viennese only got out of the water in 44th place, already two and a half minutes behind.
Things were even worse for compatriot Perterer, who lost almost six minutes. "It was brutal with the current, especially at the red buoys. I really panicked," she reported on the real problems on the Seine. "I thought about giving up a hundred times, but then I fought my way through."
Crashes in the bike race
So the competition was over early on for the red-white-red duo. "If I had been one bike group further ahead, there would still have been something in it," Hauser estimated. "As it was, the gap was too big and then three riders crashed, which also slowed me down." The bike course, wet from early rain, proved to be extremely dangerous. In the run, her domain, Hauser made up a few places, finishing 32nd, almost seven minutes behind the victorious local hero Cassandre Beaugrand.
"It wasn't the race I expected, of course, but it was definitely an experience," Hauser summed up with mixed feelings. "The atmosphere was tremendous."
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