PARIS – The dawn rain slowed to a drizzle just before 8 a.m. Wednesday in Paris, just as 46 of the fittest women in the world trotted onto the Pont Alexandre III, descended a flight of stairs onto a floating dock and dove into the Seine, bacteria be damned.

After years of planning, construction of a $1.5 billion sewage retention tank system, months of jitters, and a final 24-hour delay as mother nature cleaned up the latest sewage overflow as best it could, this elite collection of Olympic distance triathletes did the thing that has grossed out pretty much everyone for 100 years.

Was the river clean? Let’s say clean enough, and leave it at that.

At 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Olympic organizers and representatives of a regional environmental agency, the City of Paris and the prefecture of the Ile-de-France region performed the test that the Seine has been failing since the weekend downpour that soaked the opening ceremony and sent untold gallons of fresh sewage into the urban waterway.

Unlike the previous three days, when organizers canceled two training swims and postponed the men’s race for 27 hours, this time the river passed the test. But, officials determined, with levels of E.Coli and enterococci under the threshold risk for bacteria, viruses and other diseases that health experts and the world governing bodies for triathlon and swimming have set for open-water competition.

And so, with the sound of a high-pitched bleep, they set off, thrashing through the murky gray-brown waters on a day when the more immediate hazards turned out to be the slick pavement that caused a series of spills as cyclists tried to avoid one another and navigate the tight turns of perhaps the most picturesque of urban courses.

The Eiffel Tower and the Grand Palais loomed above the 1,500-meter swim. The triathletes cycled past the Musee D’Orsay and the Assemblee National. The Arc de Triomphe flashed within sight as they zipped onto the Champs-Elysées during the seven loops that comprised the 25-mile ride. And they hit many of the hot spots once more during the 6.2 mile run.

This was one of those moments organizers had dreamed of when they first designed the plan for these Games a decade ago – competition through the heart of Paris, a video postcard from one of the world’s most breathtaking cities.

And hopefully no one gets sickened from ingesting or dousing in that river water.

Taylor Knibb of the United States said she crashed in training over the weekend and had the cuts and scabs all over lower left leg to show for it. She debated for days whether to take antibiotics before going into the water. She opted not to.

She said she simply decided to not think about the pollution and just focus on the race. Struggling to swim upstream, she thought: “I just want to be done with this.”

Her teammate, Taylor Spivey said a real issue Tuesday was the current and swimming back upstream in the second part of the first leg. It was as strong a current as she has ever competed in, she said, since triathlons generally don’t take place in rivers.

“I felt like I was on a treadmill,” she said.

None of this came as a surprise to anyone who had anything to do with locating the race in the Seine. Olympic organizers, Paris officials, the leaders of World Triathlon, all of them wanted their competition at the center of the city and the Games themselves. The alternative likely would have been a lake far outside of town. No one fancied that.

Also, the Olympics often serve as a way to unleash spending on dream projects that might never get done ordinarily. Officials have been talking about making the Seine swimmable for more than 30 years. The sewage retention project became one of the legacies of the Games, something organizers could point to when asked whether going through all this trouble to host was worthwhile.

Next summer, three swimming areas in the Seine will open to the public. That is the plan anyway, along with three more races in the river before these Games finish.

To the racing: Flora Duffy of Bermuda, the defending Olympic champion, led a tight lead pack by a hair after the swim, the segment that is more about survival and trying to put some hurt on competitors than establishing a lead. The cycling leg brought some thinning, with Duffy sharing the work at the front with Maya Kingma of the Netherlands, Georgia Taylor-Brown of Britain and the hometown favorite, Cassandre Beaugrand of France.

Still the way triathlon has evolved, with more and more standout runners migrating to the sport and learning to swim and cycle adequately enough to get to the final leg, this race was always going to come down to the run. After 82 minutes, Julie Derron of Switzerland slipped on her running shoes and led the race into its final segment.

Beaugrand runs to victory at Pont Alexandre III. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Spivey, of the United States, was the first of the contenders to slip off the back of the pack. Duffy, who needed to push the pack harder on the bike but wasn’t able to, and Taylor-Brown fell off by the end of the first loop, as a lead group of four separated from everyone else.

As it so often does, that made for some cruel Olympic math. Four contenders, three medals, with two Frenchwomen, Beaugrand and Emma Lombardi, hanging with Derron and Beth Potter of Britain, as legs all over the course began to turn to goo.

Derron ran without fear, sticking to the front on a still, thick morning with no headwind to worry about, her stride smooth, her shoulders steady. Beaugrand edged onto her shoulder with two miles left, with Potter and Lombardi trailing stubbornly behind as the bell sounded, signifying the final loop.

Then Beaugrand made her move. Coming in, one of the big questions other than the health of the river was whether the racing in front her home fans would inspire Beaugrand or whether the pressure would prove too heavy a burden.

In the final mile, with thousands of flags waving and the noise building in the heart of the city, Beaugrand left no doubt, surging, three then seven then 10 and 20 meters ahead and grabbing the tape at the finish and pulling it to her face before collapsing onto the carpet. Derron took the silver. Potter nabbed the bronze.

Alex Yee, right, runs out of the Seine toward the next leg of the race during his gold medal run. (Marijan Murat/picture alliance via Getty Images)

In the men’s race, Alex Yee of Britain won a brilliant and dramatic gold medal. The 26-year-old upgraded the silver he won in Tokyo three years ago to gold after surging clear of New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde, coming back during the run (of course).

He becomes only the second British man to bring home individual triathlon gold after Alistair Brownlee did so in back-to-back Games in London and Rio de Janeiro. France’s Leo Bergere made it a multi-event medal double for the hosts.

Italy’s Alessio Crociani was first out after navigating the energy-sapping 1.5km section the best of the field before embarking on the six-lap, 40km bike, which was tight throughout. Wilde surged on the second lap of the 10km run, putting him in strong position for gold.

But in one of the most dramatic finishes of these Games so far, Yee roared back, passing Wilde on the entry to the Pont Alexandre III with only meters remaining before slowing to an almost walk to take the tape and Olympic glory.

“I have so much respect for Hayden and how much he made me dig there,” Yee said. “He was an amazing athlete and for me, almost two laps in I thought that silver was on the cards but I owed it to myself to give myself one last chance.”

While Tuesday was a triumph for organizers, the Seine has a long way to go.

Three more Olympic races are supposed to take place in the river – the mixed triathlon relay, and two long distance swimming races.

That is the stated program, at least. Another downpour could turn the triathlon into a duathlon and send the swim races out to the flat water canoe venue east of the city.

Less glamorous, perhaps. But less contaminated, too.

Ben Burrows contributed reporting.

(Top photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images)

One game after Team USA head coach Steve Kerr called himself an “idiot” for not playing Jayson Tatum in the Olympic opener against Serbia, he had another player not see an ounce of playing time. 

This one was an NBA MVP. 

Joel Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers star center, was a starter against Serbia, but he was replaced by Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis in the 103-86 victory over South Sudan on Wednesday in Paris. 

He may have started the game on the bench, but Embiid surely would check in at some point, right? Wrong. 

Embiid was the only player on Team USA to not see an ounce of playing time in the first half, let alone the entire game, against South Sudan, a scrappy bunch that gave the Stars and Stripes fits during their exhibition game this month.

Embiid, who opted to play for the United States while also having eligibility for France and his home country, Cameroon, was deadpan on the Team USA bench throughout the game, as the broadcast picked up.  

Instead of substituting for Davis off the bench, Kerr called on Bam Adebayo to relieve him. Adebayo played 21 minutes and led the U.S. in points with 18 on 8-of-10 shooting, along with seven rebounds, two blocks and one steal. 

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Davis played 19 minutes, tallying eight points on 4-of-7 shooting with seven boards, three assists, two blocks and one steal as well.

Embiid was the NBA’s leading scorer last season, averaging 33 points per game for the Sixers, but he struggled in the team’s opener against Serbia. He only played 11 minutes, going 2-for-5 from the field for four points while going 0-for-3 from the free throw line. He had just two rebounds as well.

Kerr’s explanation after the game was that South Sudan’s speed was the reason behind Embiid’s benching, believing that Davis and Adebayo matched up better against them. He also said Embiid will be in the starting lineup against Puerto Rico on Friday.

Joel Embiid of Team USA is shown before the game against Serbia on July 28, 2024. (Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)

Tatum was the odd man out in Team USA’s opener, which led to a frenzy of social media posts about the Boston Celtics star not getting any playing time. Like Kerr said, though, he got playing time in this contest, as he was among the starting five. 

However, Tatum didn’t do much with his 17 minutes on the floor, scoring four points on 2-of-4 shooting with five rebounds and two assists. 

But it’s clear Kerr has a tough job with this loaded 12-man group he brought over to Paris for these Summer Games. You don’t see every player getting time on the court in NBA games, and the same goes for these contests when you’re trying to win Olympic gold.

In turn, lineups are matchup-based for Kerr and his coaching staff, and they clearly saw Davis and Adebayo as the better centers for this game against South Sudan.

But when looking at the box score from Team USA’s 101-100 win over South Sudan this month, Embiid had 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting with four three throws made out of six, seven rebounds and two assists while posting a plus-15 when he was on the floor.

Joel Embiid of Team USA is shown before the game against Serbia on July 28, 2024. (Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)

Either way, after what happened in the last game with Tatum, social media made jokes about Embiid sitting for the whole game.

With more games to come, someone is going to have to be the odd man out. But Kerr choosing Tatum, a three-time All-NBA first-team honoree the past three seasons, and former MVP Embiid were interesting choices to begin the Olympics.

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Emma Navarro didn’t want to be on the losing end of a tight three-set match at her first Olympic Games. Losing 6-7 (7), 7-6 (4), 6-1 to China’s Qinwen Zheng in the third round Tuesday meant Navarro’s Paris 2024 singles tournament was over.

Instead of just the customary handshake after each match between opponents, Navarro took it a step further. The 23-year-old American grasped Zheng’s hand and locked eyes with her. Navarro spoke to Zheng in a tense exchange at the net, with Navarro shaking her head in frustration as the players walked to thank the chair umpire.

Navarro didn’t mince words when later asked about the conversation.

“I just told her I didn’t respect her as a competitor,” Navarro said after the match. “I think she goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way. It makes for a locker room that doesn’t have a lot of camaraderie, so it’s tough to face an opponent like that, who I really don’t respect. But, kudos to her, she played some good tennis there at the end. She played better than me, so congrats to her.”

Navarro didn’t address why she made these comments and what about Zheng makes her “cut-throat” in the American’s opinion. Zheng admitted that Navarro told her “she doesn’t know how I have a lot of fans.”

“It looks like she’s not happy with my behavior towards her,” Zheng said.

But Zheng didn’t retaliate with criticism. Instead, Zheng said that she didn’t consider Navarro’s words “an attack” because the American lost the match.

“If she’s not happy about my behavior, she can come and tell me,” Zheng said. “I would like to correct (it) to become a better player and a better person.”

Tuesday’s encounter was the second match between Navarro and Zheng. Playing in balmy conditions on a packed Court Seven at Roland Garros, Navarro roared back in the first set down 3-5 to force a tiebreaker. Zheng took a 6-3 lead in the tiebreaker only for Navarro to rally again, saving four set points en route to winning 9-7.

In the second set, Navarro, up 5-3 and serving for the match, had a match point. An opportunity to advance to the Olympic quarterfinals was in Navarro’s grasp. But Navarro recorded a forehand unforced error. Zheng took advantage, breaking to stay alive. In the next game, Zheng held serve and suddenly, the second set was all square at 5-5.

Zheng was never fazed in the second-set tiebreaker. At 2-2, Zheng rattled off three in a row points, taking control of the tiebreaker. At set point 6-4, Zheng blasted a forehand winner, forcing a third and decisive set.

At this point, the Chinese fans in attendance roared in support of Zheng. The third set saw Zheng tally 13 service winners, record a 79 percent first serve and win all of her net points (4 for 4). Zheng broke Navarro three times. The American never faced a break point opportunity.

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Zheng praised the Chinese crowd support that guided her to victory.

“It’s so special because I don’t fight for myself,” Zheng said. “I fight for China. There were so many (in the) crowd cheering for me. … I feel very cheered up.”

It’s been a year of career feats for both Zheng and Navarro. Zheng reached her first slam final in January at the Australian Open and a new career-high ranking of world No. 7. Navarro, the 2021 NCAA singles champion with Virginia, won her first WTA tournament at Hobart International and reached her first slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon.

After over three hours, up 5-1 in the final set, Zheng had her fourth match point opportunity. Navarro’s backhand sailed wide, giving Zheng the win.

Zheng raised her arms high, let out a scream and pumped her left fist. Navarro admitted there were emotions coming off the court, the toll of not being able to close it out at match point and playing for three-plus hours.

She’ll now have to wait four years before her next potential Olympic moment.

Zheng’s Olympic dream of winning a medal continues. She will play three-time slam winner Angelique Kerber, who is playing in her final professional tournament.

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(Photo: Tnani Badreddine / DeFodi Images via Getty Images)