Anne Hidalgo is the latest French politician to take a risk and show that the River Seine is clean enough for Olympic events.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a long-awaited dip in the murky waters of the Seine amid joy and relief that the river is finally clean enough for outdoor Olympic swimming events later this month.
Wearing goggles and a wetsuit, the 65-year-old municipal leader swam breaststroke in the bright sun on Wednesday morning before diving face first and beginning a front crawl, covering about 100 meters (about 110 yards). down the river.
“It’s wonderful, very, very pleasant,” Hidalgo told reporters of the greenish water. “It’s cool, but not cold.”
She was joined by senior local officials and chief organizer of the Paris Games, Tony Estanguet, a gold medal-winning canoeist who has been sweating it out in the Seine state ahead of the games’ opening next week.
“Today is a confirmation that we are exactly where we intended to be,” said Estanguet. “Now we are ready to organize the games at Sena.”
The swimming stage of the Olympic triathlon is scheduled to take place in its waters on July 30th to 31st and August 5th, followed by open water swimming on August 8th to 9th.
Despite an investment of 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to prevent sewage leaks into the watercourse, the river had continually failed water quality tests until the beginning of this month.
Wednesday’s dive in front of more than 150 journalists aimed to demonstrate that the river was ready, but also to underline what should be one of the main achievements of the Paris 2024 legacy.
Hidalgo plans to create three public bathing areas on the Seine for the city’s residents next year – a century after swimming was banned – while fish and other organisms are also returning to the waterway in greater numbers.
The Seine’s flow is currently around 400 cubic meters per second – often above the usual level for this time of year of 100-150m3/s.
Hidalgo’s swim follows French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea Castera, who dived and swam in the River Seine on July 13.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
