Hidalgo swam a section of the river that runs past the imposing City Hall and Notre Dame Cathedral, as part of a broader effort to showcase the river’s improved cleanliness.
She was joined by Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, and Marc Guillaume, Prefect of the Paris Region.
The Summer Games kick off on July 26 with a lavish outdoor ceremony that includes a parade of athletes on boats on the River Seine.
Since 2015, organizers have invested heavily — $1.5 billion — to prepare the Seine for the Olympics, and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river in the years following the Games.
The plan included building a giant groundwater storage basin in central Paris, renovating the sewage infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
Despite being a repeated promise from politicians, swimming in the Seine has been banned for more than a century.
The late French President Jacques Chirac made a similar pledge in 1988 when he was mayor of Paris, but it never came to fruition.
Hidalgo followed in the footsteps of French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera, who swam in the Seine on Saturday wearing a full-body jacket.
Hidalgo was originally scheduled to do so in June, but was postponed due to early legislative elections in France.
Concerns persist over the Seine’s flow and pollution levels, prompting monitoring group Eau de Paris to conduct daily water quality tests.
Results in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli, prompting recent sanitation improvements.
The Seine hosts many open water swimming events during the Olympics, including the swimming marathon and the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.
Source: AP
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2024-07-17 23:22:55
