Individuals bounce into the Seine River in Paris on July 17, after Mayor Anne Hidalgo swam within the river to reveal that it’s clear sufficient to host the outside swimming occasions on the Paris Olympics later this month.
Julien De Rosa/AFP through Getty Pictures
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Julien De Rosa/AFP through Getty Pictures
PARIS — After years of guarantees and greater than $1 billion of funding, Paris’s once-filthy river is lastly swimmable. And the mayor proved it simply days earlier than the July 26 Olympic deadline.
Journalists and spectators from around the globe crowded banks and bridges of the Seine River to observe Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo take a dip in its murky waters on Wednesday. She was accompanied by members of her cupboard, in addition to officers from the Olympic organizing committee.
The clean-up undertaking started within the Nineties underneath former French President Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, who had at all times promised to swim within the river. Nonetheless, it stalled for over 30 years.
Talking to reporters after her swim, nonetheless dripping in her bathing go well with, Hidalgo stated she was pondering of Chirac right now, as a result of he was by no means in a position to take that swim. “And now we are doing it,” she stated, “thanks to the Olympic Games.”
Hidalgo stated the Video games had been an accelerator, “a kind of magnet that attracted all our energies towards a single date, July 26, and we did it.”
Cleansing the Seine goes past the Olympics. Tony Estanguet, president of the 2024 Olympic organizing committee, stated, “It’s so meaningful to use the Games to transform the city of Paris, to leave a very important legacy for the people to have an opportunity to swim.”
When Olympics organizers introduced they’d maintain the triathlon and long-distance swimming occasions within the Seine, cleansing efforts catapulted to the highest of the federal government’s precedence record.
Over the course of 9 years, the French authorities invested over $1.5 billion into varied initiatives. The newest: developing a number of 13-million-gallon holding tanks to take overspill from town’s antiquated sewer system throughout heavy rains and stop the sewage from flooding into the Seine.
Mayor Hidalgo’s swim was initially scheduled for June, however heavy rains all spring and summer season despatched the river’s E. coli charges hovering, pushing the date again and threatening the cancellation of athletic occasions.
However on this completely sunny Wednesday, the Seine turned a large pool occasion. The mayor’s complete workers and former Olympic athletes joined her to splash and swim laps within the river.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo swims within the Seine, in Paris on July 17, to reveal that the river is clear sufficient to host the outside swimming occasions on the Paris Olympics later this month.
Julien De Rosa/AFP through Getty Pictures
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Julien De Rosa/AFP through Getty Pictures
“It’s a great symbol the day before the first athletes will arrive in Paris,” stated Estanguet, who swam alongside Hidalgo. “The Seine quality is now perfect.”
Hidalgo stated the water was light, cool however not too chilly. “It had no taste,” she stated. “And was very clear, considering all the rain we’ve had. I didn’t want to get out!”
Others stay unconvinced. Water high quality testing may certify the Seine’s security, however the river’s dirty repute persists. Parisian Arnaud Gérard, watching from the riverbank, stated it was necessary for the mayor to point out each Olympic athletes and Parisians that the river is protected to swim in. However when requested if he would swim himself, he responded instantly, “No, no, no, not at all … it’s still too dirty.”
Earlier than the mayor’s plunge, Parisians took to social media to mercilessly mock the prospect of her swimming within the Seine. They likened Hidalgo to the animated character Shrek in his swamp and joked that she would emerge from the river lined in radioactive goo.
The sarcastic pessimism of some Parisians didn’t dampen the thrill of others from taking a dip within the Seine. Sarah Prot, watching the mayor’s swim together with her daughter, stated that swimming within the river has at all times been a dream of hers. Now that the water is clear sufficient, she affirmed that she would “absolutely” go for it, earlier than including: “Well, I’ll take a good shower after.”
