Watch: Women's triathlon appears to have false start, race not stopped

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Watch: Women's triathlon appears to have false start, race in Seine River not stopped

By Austen Bundy | Last updated Jul 31, 2024 11:39 AM ET

The main focus of the triathlon events in recent days has been on the water quality in the Seine River where athletes will start with the open water swim portion of the race.

After the men's event was postponed a day due to high bacteria levels, the women's race went off without a hitch Wednesday morning.

Well, almost without a hitch. On the broadcast of the event, it appeared that half of the field dove off the starting dock early before the official horn but nobody stopped the athletes to start over, drawing some confusion from the commentators.

Definitely a massive false start at the Women’s Triathlon #OlympicGames #OlympicGamesParis2024 #WomensTriatlon Will this effect the results? https://t.co/ArBQCFHPJV pic.twitter.com/6KU7S3OLgq
— Matt Zeller (@mattczeller) July 31, 2024

France's Cassandre Beaugrand took gold in the event, while Switzerland's Julie Derron and Great Britain's Beth Potter took silver and bronze, respectively.

So far, there have been no official complaints reported by athletes or delegations regarding the apparent early start by some athletes.

Despite there being no official intervention in Paris, the episode is eerily similar to the situation at the start of the men's triathlon at the 2021 Tokyo Games.

The race was started there despite half the field being blocked by a large boat. Organizers had to paddleboard to athletes still swimming because they couldn't hear the stopping horns.

The men's triathlon in Paris finished just hours after the women's event with no such similar episode to report.

Austen Bundy

Austen Bundy is a journalist and sports junkie from the Washington, D. C. area

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