Paris 2024 triathlon: Would you swim in the Seine?

ANDRE PAIN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock A swimmer emerging from the Seine in Paris wearing a wetsuit and a lavender swimming cap, with goggles over the top of it

It ought to be a surprising set piece of Paris 2024 – triathletes competing within the River Seine, bringing swimming again to the centre of this metropolis. However considerations about water high quality imply the primary occasion has needed to be postponed for a day.

Standing on the Pont des Invalides, barely downstream of the deliberate beginning line, locals and vacationers spoke to me about whether or not they could be tempted to take a dip themselves.

“It is a good looking river,” mentioned Reda, a Parisian, as he surveyed the Seine glimmering beneath on a sizzling July day.

“However I’ll by no means dive in, even when they clear it for years.”

The Seine has already performed a starring function within the Video games, having hosted 1000’s of athletes who took half in a ship parade in Friday evening’s rain-soaked opening ceremony.

Metropolis swimming – which has been banned within the metropolis for a century due to the water high quality – is supposed to be one of many main legacies of the Video games, because of a significant regeneration mission.

As not too long ago as Monday, organisers have been saying they have been confident the triathlon events would go ahead as deliberate. However the weekend’s heavy rain has put paid to that.

Paris’s “single system” drainage has grow to be saturated, with extra water – from kitchens and bogs, in addition to run-off from rain on the road – draining into the river.

Reda says he would by no means take a dip within the Seine

A young man with close-cropped dark hair and stubble wearing dark sunglasses and a pale pink t-shirt stands by the River Seine — Reda says he would by no means take a dip within the Seine

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo not too long ago took a swim within the Seine to focus on the efforts made to wash it up.

Earlier exams had confirmed persistent ranges of E.coli that broke the boundaries imposed of sports activities federations. This kind of micro organism could cause diseases together with vomiting and diarrhoea.

The BBC’s Hugh Schofield was among those who joined Ms Hidalgo. He unintentionally swallowed a mouthful of water within the course of – however remarked that it tasted fantastic.

Lots of the vacationers I spoke to on the Invalides bridge spoke of the relative ease of open-water swimming at dwelling.

Guests from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic all mentioned they’d dived into their respective nations’ rivers, lakes and canals – and that they’d do the identical within the Seine if the proof instructed it was secure.

Esmee, proper, says the river doesn’t look “that unhealthy”

Two women with long dark blonde hair tied up, with their arms around each other - the woman on the left wears a maroon t-shirt, and the woman on the right wears a dark blue t-shirt — Esmee, proper, says the river doesn’t look “that unhealthy”

“I might go for it,” mentioned Dutchwoman Esmee. “It doesn’t look that unhealthy from right here.”

France lags behind the European Union’s common rating for top-quality bathing water circumstances. About 75% of French bathing waters have been rated “wonderful” in 2023 in contrast with 85% throughout the bloc as a complete, in accordance to the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Though it was secure to wash in a lot of the EU’s bathing waters, coastal waters have been usually higher than rivers and lakes, the company famous in its report printed in Might.

Cyprus topped the complete desk with 97.6% of its bathing waters being of fantastic high quality, adopted by Austria at 96.9% and Croatia on 96.7%.

As the info simply seems on the EU, the UK isn’t included. And whereas swimming is coming again to the Seine, at the moment just one stretch of the Thames – close to Wallingford, Oxfordshire – is designated for bathing.

The EEA made particular reference to Paris’s €1.4bn (£1.1bn; $1.5bn) clean-up operation, which started 10 years in the past.

As a part of this, an unlimited rainwater storage basin has been created. That is able to storing the equal of 20 Olympic swimming swimming pools’ price of water – all a part of a mechanism to cease sewage flowing into the Seine throughout heavy rainfall.

Danielle says she’s trying ahead to a swim in her metropolis’s well-known river

A young woman with dark hair in a bob, wearing a white polo shirt and a rucksack, stands on a bridge over a river — Danielle says she’s trying ahead to a swim in her metropolis’s well-known river

Not each customer to the bridge on the eve of the boys’s triathlon was fussed by the cleanliness subject, with some saying they’d think about leaping into the river come what could – offered the climate was heat sufficient.

One man from Brazil mentioned that was merely what he and his compatriots did.

“In my metropolis, São Paulo, it is not clear both,” he admitted.

However quite a few Parisians agreed {that a} clear and swimmable river could be an thrilling a part of the Olympic legacy.

Danielle, a college professor, mentioned she would “completely” swim within the Seine.

“I’ve needed to do it for a very long time,” she mentioned with a smile.

For one man named Damien, sustaining the cleanliness was “a giant mission”, however one price pursuing.

“It is a good alternative for all Parisians,” he mentioned.

Testing of the water continues to be carried out each day.

Lambis Konstantinidis, operations director for Paris 2024, mentioned there have been a number of back-up plans in place, together with using contingency days.

Downgrading the triathlons into duathlons – and scrapping the swimming completely – would solely be thought of in a “actually, actually excessive case”, he advised the BBC on Monday.

Extra reporting by Lauren Turner