Politicians swim within the Seine to display safety at events

After months of speculation, quite a few tests for E.coli, an unpredictable parliamentary election and threats from local residents to defecate within the Seine, it now looks like swimming events will happen within the famous waterway on the Olympic Games, which begin in nine days. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo finally swam within the river this morning to prove it’s secure for athletes, rounding off a highly political saga.

The Seine has been an open battleground for protests against the sums being spent on the Olympics across Paris, by those that imagine the cash might be higher spent on reducing wealth inequality in town. Protesters recently threatened to defecate within the Seine after Mayor Anne Hidalgo and President Emmanuel Macron promised to swim within the river to point out that it could be clean enough in time for the Games. In any case, it was Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera, a fierce political rival of the Paris mayor, who sponge within the Seine to prove its cleanliness.

The Seine was the centerpiece of Paris’ Olympic bid. The city has largely used existing infrastructure for its events, and swimming within the Seine is a return to old hosting patterns – town hosted rowing, water polo and swimming events within the Seine on the 1904 Olympics, and Parisians swam within the river until it was banned in 1923 because of high bacteria levels. In 1988, President Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, promised that the Seine can be clean enough to swim in by 1994. But it was not until May 2, 2024 that town unveiled an enormous basin, the scale of 20 Olympic swimming pools, designed to soak up all of the Seine’s runoff water, improving water quality when it rains.

It was a central political promise of the Paris organizers, staked out The athletes – who’re putting their reputations on the road – remember all too well what happened on the 2012 London Olympics, when a whole lot of swimmers suffered nausea, diarrhea, cramps and vomiting after competing within the Thames.

The motto of Paris since 1865 has been “Fluctuat nec mergitur,” which translates as “He/she is tossed by the waves, but he/she does not sink,” and Politico used this sarcastically to explain the mayor of Paris’ try to swim within the Seine with Olympic organizers this morning. The water was 20 degrees Celsius, the skies sunny, and bacteria levels lower than the degrees she had promised to swim. Reports FranceInfo.

Earlier this week, Paris City Hall announced that the standard of the river Seine had been ok for swimming for many of the past 12 days. This is an unexpected turn of events considering town has recently suffered from very heavy rainfall, which normally results in an excess of water runoff within the river. City Hall official Pierre Rabadan told reporters on the time he was confident the events would go ahead, although changes could also be needed – he didn’t elaborate on what those changes may be.

The E. coli levels (which indicate the presence of faeces) at the location where the swimming competitions were to start, Pont Alexandre III, were above the permissible limits set by the sports federations. reported by France 24. In the months leading as much as the Olympics, E.coli levels were at times ten times higher than the extent allowed for swimming, although organizers argued that these samples were taken within the winter months, during times of less sunlight and stronger currents (when the bacteria are usually not killed as quickly by the sun’s UV rays).

The Seine will host the triathlon competitions on July 30 (men’s triathlon), July 31 (women’s triathlon) and August 5 (mixed race). It will even host the open water swimming events on August 8 and 9.

The Paris City Hall plans to maintain the Seine clean and open three sites to the general public in 2025, in Bras Marie, Grenelle and Bercy (within the 4th, fifteenth and twelfth arrondissements).

It is hoped that the weather will remain dry within the remaining days leading as much as the Opening Ceremony of the Games on Friday 26 July.