After several postponements, Paris’ mayor Anne Hidalgo will finally take a dip in the Seine River as she promised several months ago.
Initially, the mayor said she would take a swim in the Seine on June 23rd, but apparently delayed her plans due to France’s snap parliamentary elections.
Now she is promising to go into the water on Wednesday, July 17th, alongside several other French officials, including the head (préfet) of the Paris region, Marc Guillaume, and the head of the Olympic organising committee, Tony Estanguet.
“For the last 15 days, we have seen that the water is up to standard,” Guillaume told the French news outlet France Bleu Paris, referencing recent analyses of the Seine’s bacteria levels.
“When we have heavy rain, there are variations, but nevertheless the rain has eased off over the last few days,” he added.
On Friday, city hall official Pierre Rabadan told broadcaster RFI that the water met the required standard for “11 days or 10 days” of the past 12.
The river is set to be the star of the opening ceremony of the Games, and later – weather permitting – to host the triathlon and the swimming marathon.
Hidalgo, Guillaume and Estanguet will not be the first to sample the waters, however.
Their announcement comes just a few days after France’s minister for sport, Amélie Oudéa Castéra, also decided to take a dip in the Seine on Saturday morning.
Promesse tenue ! 🏊
Avec @AHanquinquant, notre champion paralympique de triathlon, qui fêtait son rôle de porte-drapeau à Paris 2024 ! 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/SsJYaWwhSS
— Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (@AOC1978) July 13, 2024
Last summer several other officials, including Hidalgo’s then-deputy Emmanuel Grégoire and Pierre Rabadan, the Paris deputy mayor in charge of sport, took a dip. Back in 2022, Hidalgo’s son Arthur Germain swam the entire length of the River Seine in an endurance swimming event.
French authorities have spent €1.4 billion in the last decade trying to clean up the river by improving the Paris sewerage system, as well as building new water treatment and storage facilities.
But heavy rain and storms still overwhelm the capital’s waste water network, some of which dates back to the 19th century, leading to discharges of untreated sewage directly into the river.
After initially insisting that there was ‘no Plan B’ for the open water swimming events, Olympic organisers have now revealed that if the Seine does not pass cleanliness standards the open-water swimming events will take place at the Vaire-sur-Marne water park, currently venue for Games canoe and kayaking events.
The plan is that after the Games, the river will become a swimming venue for the people of Paris, with swimming basins opened up in the summer.
Member comments