Paris mayor swims in the Seine ahead of Olympics games

Just over a week before the opening of the Olympic games, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has taken a swim in the Seine.

After 101 years of prohibition, the river is officially clean enough to swim in - on time to host several open water swimming events during the Games, including marathon swimming at the Olympic Games and the swimming legs of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.

After weeks of bad results, the water’s pollution levels are back under the limit, both thanks to July’s favourable weather and the €1.4 billion invested to clean the river.

Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet and the top government official for the Paris region, Marc Guillaume, as well as other collaborators and some members of the public joined Hidalgo in the water.

On se baigne dans la Seine ! Bravo et merci à tous les acteurs impliqués dans la réussite de ce projet.

📸 Jean-Baptiste Gurliat pic.twitter.com/wveKIQdJ15

— Tony Estanguet - OLY (@TonyEstanguet) July 17, 2024

The mayor fulfils a promise she made months ago to show the river is clean enough to host open-swimming competitions during the 2024 Games.

She was originally supposed to swim last month, but had to delay because water tests showed that E.Coli bacteria – a key indicator of faecal matter – were up to 10 times higher than authorised limits.

“It’s such a joy,” Hidalgo told reporters. “We’ve dreamed about this for years. We’ve worked really, really hard – and now you go down in the water, it seems natural, it seems easy…”

French Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra had already swam in the Seine last week. President Emmanuel Macron promised to do the same a few months ago.

His close circle confirmed to French media Franceinfo that he would be taking a dip – although no date has been announced yet.