French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to personally swim in the Seine River once the ongoing cleanup efforts are completed prior to the start of the Olympic Games.
The announcement came during an official visit to the Olympic village in Paris, during which Macron discussed the long-term benefits the Games were having on the city including pollution reduction and job creation.
Macron’s declaration echoed one made by Anne Hidalgo, the current mayor of Paris, who also promised to dive in before the Olympic Games start. She previously assured the public that the river will be open for swimming at select locations by 2025, but has yet to brave the water since her announcement.
The latest of multiple French leaders to vow to clean the river and go for a swim, Macron following through on this promise and taking a dip ahead of the Games would paint a cultural and political symbol for all the eyes watching Paris in the build-up to the Olympics.
Back in 1990, Jacques Chirac swore during his time as mayor of Paris that the Seine would be clean enough to swim in and that he would celebrate the achievement by being one of the first to take the plunge; neither of these milestones ever came to fruition.
Swimming in the Seine has notoriously been banned since 1923 due to the typically high levels of pollution in the water, but that is intended to change soon: the Olympic and Paralympic open water swimming and triathlon swimming legs are scheduled to take place in the river.
Taking place in the iconic and historic river with the city as the backdrop, the events are planned to start at the Pont Alexandre III and pass famous landmarks such as the Musée d’Orsay and the Grand Palais. But before that can happen, the Seine needs to be cleaned up.
Last year’s swimming test events were canceled because the water was too dirty, casting doubts on the safety of having the Seine serve as the venue for the Olympic events this summer as samples failed to meet European standards for water quality.
Despite the complications, Paris and the Olympic organizing committee is committed to the open water swimming events competing in the Seine. Authorities and public funds poured about 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) into projects designed to clean the river and improve the water quality to a swimmable level, and the only backup plan in place is to postpone the competition events a few days.
The Seine and Paris’s open water swimming events are not the first to make the news prior to the Olympics: both Tokyo Bay and Guanabara Bay in Rio invited protests over their pollution levels.
Concerns over the water quality in Paris do not seem to have deterred the athletes themselves; a handful of high-profile open water swimmers, namely Marc-Antoine Olivier and Gregorio Paltrinieri, expressed excitement towards competing in the Seine.
Macron’s promise to swim in the Seine underscored the city and the nation’s commitment to making the 2024 Olympics a historic and unique event that draws on the culture of France and the city of Paris.
Make sure to wear a wetsuit, gloves, booties, scuba mask, goggles underneath and shower for 5 hours after.
No thanks
Marcon is a joke…no sane athlete will swim in the Seine its absolutely disgusting people throw cigarettes, booze, they even piss in the Seine…the metro still has many problems, its an Olympic Games and they’re trying to get on their high horse about Carbon Footprints…the transportation from the Olympic Village to la defense will supposedly take 3-4 hours total for athletes that have Prelims and Finals to swim…fun time…I live here and I sure as hell won’t be staying when the games are around…gonna be a nightmare
When in Rome do as the Roman’s do, and we all know the Parisians aren’t jumping in the Seine…
Macron will swim in the Seine the day after Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg engage in their martial arts fight.
So never?
It’s nice that President Macron can divert the delays, deficiencies, and still-lurking problems for Paris 2024, now only months away, with such silliness. What problems: 1) Businesses have been told to close up and send people out of town to reduce the crush of crowds; 2) Paris Metro is still waiting for massive upgrades that probably won’t arrive; 3) housing concerns for tourists have reached a breaking point; 4) the French people’s penchant for well-planned strikes could bring water cannon and tear gas into the Champs Elysees; 5) and, other tourist attractions outside the Games have jacked up prices enormously (cf. Louvre). Bienvenue a Paris 2024!