PARIS — Under blue skies and bright sunshine, curious Parisians gathered along the right bank of the Seine to see the French capital’s mayor plunge into the water.
After months of anticipation, a smiling Anne Hidalgo fulfilled a promise to show it was clean enough to host open swimming competitions during the 2024 Olympics — and the opening ceremony on the river nine days away.
Clad in a wetsuit and goggles, she plunged into the river near Paris’ imposing City Hall, her office, and the Notre Dame Cathedral.
She was followed into the water by Paris 2024 Olympic President and former canoeist Tony Estanguet, as well as Marc Guillaume, the top government official for the Paris region. Guillaume is responsible for the safety and traffic on the famous Parisienne waterway, which will be at the center of the opening ceremony.
Members of the City Council also made the long awaited dip along with swimmers from local swimming clubs.
“The water is wonderful,” Hidalgo told NBC News after she emerged from the water, adding that it was “very cool and very nice.”
Estanguet added that it was a “very important milestone because it’s the confirmation that we are ready for the Games.”
“The Seine quality is perfect,” he said. He added that it sent a message to the athletes that they should enjoy the Games.
Hidalgo’s swim is part of a broader effort to showcase the river’s improved cleanliness ahead of the Games, which are set to kick off July 26 with a lavish open-air ceremony that includes an athletes’ parade on boats on the Seine. Swimming in the river has been banned for more than a century. But the Paris Games organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and to ensure residents will have a cleaner river after the Games.
This included the construction of a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
But concerns over the Seine’s flow and pollution levels have persisted, prompting daily water quality tests by the monitoring group Eau de Paris. Results in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, although readings have since improved.
Originally planned for June, Hidalgo’s swim was postponed because of snap parliamentary elections in France. On the original date, the hashtag ”jechiedanslaSeine” (“I’m pooping in the Seine”) trended on social media as demonstrators threatened to protest against the Olympics by defecating upstream.That didn’t deter Hidalgo, who carefully entered the river using the ladder of an artificial pond set up for Wednesday’s event. Seven security boats were deployed for the occasion.
They swam down the river for about 300 feet, switching between crawl and breaststroke as curious onlookers crowded along the upper banks.
“I wouldn’t have missed that for anything in the world,” Lucie Coquereau, who woke up early to get the best view of Hidalgo from the Pont de Sully bridge that overlooks the swim site, told The Associated Press.
Other politicians have promised to clean up the Seine but haven’t succeeded. Jacques Chirac, the former French president, made a similar pledge in 1988 when he was Paris mayor, but it was never realized.Hidalgo followed in the footsteps of French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who swam in the Seine on Saturday wearing a full-body suit.
The Seine will 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.
