Germany have won a three-woman sprint to snare the Olympic triathlon mixed relay gold medal, while Australia battled at the rear of the field.

Laura Lindemann beat American Taylor Knibb and British triathlete Beth Potter to win in one hour 24 minutes 39 seconds.

There was controversy around the minor placings - the British initially were given the silver medal in the photo finish, but they ended up with bronze behind the Americans after a review.

A spill from Natalie Van Coevorden cost Australia any hopes of a higher finish and they were 12th of 15 starters in 1:28:50.

"Obviously we hold ourselves to high standards. It's not the result we wanted out there today, but I couldn't be prouder to line up with three great guys and girls," said top Australian Matt Hauser.

The one consolation was beating New Zealand, whose star Hayden Wilde was left with a bloody nose after he crashed on the bike in the opening leg.

Potter led at the start of the last of the four mini-triathlons, but Knibb and Lindemann turned it into a three-nation duel.

The race consisted of a 300m swim, 7km cycle and 1.8km run at Pont Alexandre III, the same venue for last week's individual triathlons.

Each team member did the mini-triathlon and handed over to the next triathlete.

Luke Willian started for Australia and was sixth, 12 seconds behind Great Britain.

But Van Coevorden stumbled in the swim-bike transition and she dropped back to the rear of the race.

"I slipped off my saddle. That's never happened to me before," she said.

"The biggest thing is don't panic, just get on with it."

When she handed over to Hauser, seventh in the triathlon last week, Australia were nearly two minutes behind the leaders.

At halfway, Germany and Great Britain shared the lead, but Potter was by herself in front at the start of the final leg thanks to a strong third leg from Sam Dickinson.

Hauser had the seventh-fastest time for the third leg and handed over to Sophie Linn, who finished two places ahead of New Zealand.

"Winners of the Oceania - take that," Linn said.

There had been some uncertainty around whether the race would be postponed, given the ongoing concerns about water quality in the River Seine.

Belgium pulled out of the event on Sunday, saying Claire Michel had been sick after last Wednesday's individual triathlons.

Rain on Wednesday and Thursday last week had caused bacteria levels in the river to rise again.

But the Australians reported no problems.

"It's all those little things, to make sure we don't get sick ... we have body wash, mouth wash, ear wash, eye wash, some antibiotics. It's full-on, Willian said.

The men's race last week was changed from Tuesday to Wednesday, the same day as the women's competition, because of water quality concerns.

While the team relay was a struggle, Hauser's top-10 finish last week is a sign of life for the sport in Australia after a disappointing Tokyo campaign.

The glory days of the 1990s and early 2000s are ancient history.

"We've really taken it upon ourselves to bring this new cohort forward ... for LA 2028 and the spectacle that Brisbane is going to be," Hauser said.

"We try our very best to try and push this sport forward. We've come a long way since Tokyo."