Paris mayor makes good on Seine swim vow to show it’s safe for Olympics
By Rob Harris
Paris: Nine days before the starter pistol is fired on her city’s Olympic Games, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has braved the murky waters of the Seine to show that the river is clean enough to host scheduled outdoor swimming events.
Sporting a black wetsuit and goggles, Hidalgo fulfilled a promise she made in January to swim in the river in a bid to prove that a costly clean-up had made it ready for athletes to use at the upcoming games.
The Socialist mayor, who has become one of the most polarising figures in French politics during her 10-year reign – in part because of an anti-car green agenda and her combative nature – entered the river feet first using a ladder on a pontoon set up for the event. To avoid injuring herself, she didn’t dive. Two bikes and a scooter had earlier been fished out of the river.
“The swim was amazing, the water was great, a bit cold but not too much,” Hidalgo told journalists from the water. “The Seine is exquisite … after the Games we will have a swimming pool in the river for all the people, for the Parisian people and for the tourists also.”
The stunt, watched by hundreds of onlookers from the riverbanks, occurred amid fears that unseasonably bad weather would render the Seine far too dirty for the events to take place. Triathlon events are due to start later this month, but official testing by the city has shown E. coli bacteria levels have been above acceptable levels on the majority of days between June 3 and July 2, which would potentially expose athletes to serious health risks.
But tests last week for the first time showed acceptable bacteria levels, according to a statement by the mayor’s office.
Since 2015, organisers have invested heavily − €1.4 billion ($2.3 billion) − to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river in the years after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
“I remember at the very beginning in 2015 when we began our campaign for the Games, the international triathlon federation said why not a triathlon in the Seine? Will athletes be able to swim in the Seine? Today we can say they can,” Hidalgo said.
Hidalgo, who said the swim was “a dream”, plunged into the river near City Hall and the Notre Dame Cathedral alongside Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet, with swimmers from local swimming clubs and engineers who worked on the project. They swam down the river for about 100 metres, switching between crawl and breaststroke.
Hidalgo had originally planned to swim in June, but had to delay her dip because bacteria indicating the presence of faecal matter were found to be sometimes 10 times higher than authorised limits.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo takes her long-promised dip in the Seine.Credit: AP
Major storms still overwhelm the Paris underground waste-water network, some of which dates back to the 19th century.
Competitors in the open-water swimming events and triathlon will set off at the Pont Alexandre III bridge, a marvel of engineering near the foot of the Champs-Elysees with the Eiffel Tower in the background. The water will be tested regularly at several points before each event and authorities are certain it will be clean with 75 per cent of identified bacterial pollution eliminated.
Swimming in the Seine was banned in 1923 because of pollution, with heavy rains regularly bringing flows of rubbish and plastic. Several politicians have promised to clean up the Seine for decades, including Jacques Chirac, the former French president, in 1988 when he was Paris mayor, but it was never realised.
Hidalgo followed in the footsteps of French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera, who swam in the Seine on Saturday. French President Emmanuel Macron, who had promised to join the Seine bathers, was a notable absentee. The beleaguered leader is consumed by a political crisis caused by his decision to call snap parliamentary elections last month.
Australian 1500m freestyle swimmer Moesha Johnson, who will also take part in the open water event, said on Wednesday she trusted “whatever decision they make for the race, that it will be the right one”.
The organising committee for the Paris Games has no back-up venue lined up, although they can change the days of the two events.
But Estanguet said the swim had sent an important message to athletes: “the triathlon and marathon swimming events will be able to take place in the Seine,” he said.
“It was a daring idea to hold the events in the river, and it has paid off.”
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