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Paris has been busy cleaning up its Seine river for the upcoming 2024 Olympics.
Despite the doubts that the famous river could ever be clean enough for swimming in, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, has taken to the water to prove that it is in fact ready for the games.
On Wednesday, Hidalgo led a group of about 100 officials, athletes and Parisian locals into water and swam around 100 metres downstream.
“It’s a dream day … and the sun is out,” Hidalgo told media after her swim. “It’s sweet and wonderful and the result of a lot of work. I remember at the very beginning in 2015 when we began our campaign for the Games, the international triathlon federation said why not a triathlon in the Seine? Will athletes be able to swim in the Seine? Today we can say they can.”
The river will host the Olympic’s triathlon swimming events, which are set to take place on the 30th and 31st July, and 5th August, and its marathon swimming events.
Competitors will take off from Pont Alexandre III, near the base of the Champs-Élysées. The water will be tested multiple times before each event and events will only go ahead if its determined clean by authorities.
While its currently determined clean, Paris Olympic organisers have said that heavy rain may impact the pollution levels.
In that case, the triathlon events will skip the swimming portion and the marathon swimming events will be relocated.
Its not the first time Paris has attempted to clean up the river, which has been banned for swimming since 1923.
In 1990, then-mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac pledged to make it clean enough for swimming without success.
As the setting for the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, the newly clean Seine is set to be the star of the the 2024 games.
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