Paris mayor swims in Seine River before Olympics : NPR

PARIS — After years of promises and more than $1 billion of investment, Paris’s once-filthy river is finally swimmable. And the mayor proved it just days before the July 26 Olympic deadline.

Journalists and spectators from around the world crowded banks and bridges of the Seine River to watch Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo take a dip in its murky waters on Wednesday. She was accompanied by members of her cabinet, as well as officials from the Olympic organizing committee.

The clean-up project began in the 1990s under former French President Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, who had always promised to swim in the river. However, it stalled for over 30 years.

Speaking to reporters after her swim, still dripping in her bathing suit, Hidalgo said she was thinking of Chirac today, because he was never able to take that swim. “And now we are doing it,” she said, “thanks to the Olympic Games.”

Hidalgo said the Games were an accelerator, “a kind of magnet that attracted all our energies towards a single date, July 26, and we did it.”

Cleaning the Seine goes beyond the Olympics. Tony Estanguet, president of the 2024 Olympic organizing committee, said, “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 announced they would hold the triathlon and long-distance swimming events in the Seine, cleaning efforts catapulted to the top of the government’s priority list.

Over the course of nine years, the French government invested over $1.5 billion into various projects. The most recent: constructing several 13-million-gallon holding tanks to take overspill from the city’s antiquated sewer system during heavy rains and prevent the sewage from flooding into the Seine.

Mayor Hidalgo’s swim was originally scheduled for June, but heavy rains all spring and summer sent the river’s E. coli rates soaring, pushing the date back and threatening the cancellation of athletic events.

But on this perfectly sunny Wednesday, the Seine became a giant pool party. The mayor’s entire staff and former Olympic athletes joined her to splash and swim laps in the river.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo swims in the Seine, in Paris on July 17, to demonstrate that the river is clean enough to host the outdoor swimming events at the Paris Olympics later this month.

Julien De Rosa/AFP via Getty Images

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Julien De Rosa/AFP via Getty Images

“It’s a great symbol the day before the first athletes will arrive in Paris,” said Estanguet, who swam alongside Hidalgo. “The Seine quality is now perfect.”

Hidalgo said the water was gentle, cool but not too cold. “It had no taste,” she said. “And was very clear, considering all the rain we’ve had. I didn’t want to get out!”

Others remain unconvinced. Water quality testing might certify the Seine’s safety, but the river’s soiled reputation persists. Parisian Arnaud Gérard, watching from the riverbank, said it was important for the mayor to show both Olympic athletes and Parisians that the river is safe to swim in. But when asked if he would swim himself, he responded immediately, “No, no, no, not at all … it’s still too dirty.”

Before the mayor’s plunge, Parisians took to social media to mercilessly mock the prospect of her swimming in the Seine. They likened Hidalgo to the animated character Shrek in his swamp and joked that she would emerge from the river covered in radioactive goo.

The sarcastic pessimism of some Parisians didn’t dampen the excitement of others from taking a dip in the Seine. Sarah Prot, watching the mayor’s swim with her daughter, said that swimming in the river has always been a dream of hers. Now that the water is clean enough, she affirmed that she would “absolutely” go for it, before adding: “Well, I’ll take a good shower after.”