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Triathlon will make its Olympic debut at the 2000 Sydney Games. So will scuba divers
riding underwater scooters equipped with sonar devices that emit an electric field.
Blame the James Bond treatment on a few pesky sharks.
The swim leg of September’s Olympic triathlon will be staged in Sydney Harbor,
which unfortunately has had a rash of shark sightings in recent weeks. Ordinarily,
that’s no big deal, but some foreign competitors don’t want to be upended
by the planet’s most efficient predator.
Unseasonably warm water temperatures are attracting the fabled fish to Farm Cove,
site of the 1500-meter swim course. Race officials say that competitors are more
likely to be struck by lightning than have a run-in with Jaws, but they’re not
taking any chances. Six divers armed with sonar that generates a shark-repelling
electric field will shadow the swim pack on aqua scooters. In addition, it’s
believed that the commotion kicked up by the swimmers and several escort boats will
scare away even the most curious critters.
But perhaps the best defense is the statistically sound assertion that sharks rarely
attack people. There hasn’t been a shark attack recorded in the race area in the
month of September in 208 years, and there’s been only one attack in April during
that same time, according to NBCOlympics.com.
The shark-dispelling strategy apparently worked April 16 at the World Cup
Triathlon, which is held on the same course as the upcoming Olympic race.
No one was mauled by a finned torpedo, and in a hometown show of confidence,
Australians Michellie Jones and Peter Robertson won the women’s and men’s races.
It’s no wonder that Jones and Robertson were able to rise above the toothed tumult.
A playful nip from a shark is part of life on a continent in which poisonous, stinging,
and biting animals lurk around every corner. Or perhaps they know that predators always
seek out the weakest members of the
herd.
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