Paris mayor will swim in the Seine River to showcase its improved cleanliness ahead of the Olympics

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

After months of anticipation, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is set to swim in the Seine River later on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise she made in January nine days before the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics.

The swim will occur along the stretch of the river that passes by the imposing-looking City Hall and the Notre Dame Cathedral as part of a broader effort to showcase the river’s improved cleanliness. Joining her will be Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris 2024 Games, and Marc Guillaume, the prefect of the Paris region.

The Summer Games will kick off July 26 with a lavish open-air ceremony that includes an athletes’ parade on boats on the 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 after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.

Despite being a recurring promise among politicians, swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century. Jacques Chirac, the former French president, made a similar pledge in 1988 when he was Paris mayor, but it was never realized.

Hidalgo will follow in the footsteps of French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who swam in the Seine on Saturday wearing a full-body suit.

Originally planned for June, Hidalgo’s swim was postponed due to snap parliamentary elections in France. On the initial date, the hashtag ”jechiedanslaSeine” (“I’m pooping in the Seine”) trended on social media as some threatened to protest the Olympics by defecating upstream.

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, followed by recent improvements.

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.

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Follow AP's coverage of the Paris Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games