Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip in the River Seine on Wednesday, a month after her planned first attempt was called off due to the French elections, to prove the suitability of the waterway ahead of the Olympic Games.
Joined by Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet and a senior civil servant, the trio followed in the footsteps of sports minister Amelie Oudea Castera, who took the plunge earlier this week.
With the Olympic Games starting next week, there are still question marks surrounding the Seine’s water quality, ones which elite triathletes in particular will be anxious to have answered before the first event on Tuesday July 30.
Taking the plunge
Having made the promise to swim in the Seine some time ago, Hidalgo had planned to take a dip on June 23rd, but was forced to postpone her plans after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap election.
Four weeks later, she was joined by Estanguet, and donning a wetsuit and a pair of goggles, swam near the Pont Alexandre III bridge, which is where the triathlon and marathon swimming events will take place later this month.
President Macron, who had previously pledged to join Hidalgo, is yet to test out the water himself, but was back in the French capital after attending the NATO Summit in Washington D.C last week.
Sceptics still surfacing
Despite the best efforts of the organising committee to reassure everyone that the Seine’s water quality problems are under control, there is still plenty of unease amongst the French general public and the triathletes who are set to compete.
Less than 12 months ago, the paratriathlon events at the Paris Test Event were impacted by the issue, as was the mixed team relay, with the swim cancelled and the race changed to a duathlon.
The French government have invested a reported €1.4bn (£1.18bn) into the clean-up operation in the build up to the Games, but if there are heavy periods of rain, the pollution could still spike to similar levels recorded earlier in the year.
If the water quality is deemed to be unsafe at the end of this month in Paris – and it can’t be rescheduled a few days later – then the triathlons will become duathlons.
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