The Minister of Sports is the first to keep her promise to swim in the Seine in Paris, ahead of the Olympic Games.
She promised it, she did it. And even before the President of the Republic and the Mayor of Paris. Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra took a dip in the Seine, in Paris, this Saturday morning, to demonstrate that it was now possible to swim in the river, which was one of the most polluted in France and Europe, while several competitions of the Paris Olympic Games will take place there in a few weeks.
The minister went swimming with the Paralympic triathlete, chosen as the flag bearer for the French delegation, Alexis Hanquinquant. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s swim was filmed and posted on social media to promote the event. In one video, the former top tennis player can be seen diving from a dock, then appearing in the water with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
The images broadcast by the media are slightly different from those broadcast on Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s official accounts. BFMTV in particular posted a video where we see the minister trying to approach the water of the Seine with a wary step, via one of the inclined planes that run along the river, then slipping before ending up in the water.
With the opening of the Olympic Games just a few days away, the holding of the open water swimming events and the triathlon swim is still in question. Announced as the flagship event of the Paris 2024 Games, the promise to hold these events in the Seine has caused a lot of ink to flow. The cause is the quality of the water in the Parisian river, subject to the vagaries of the weather and the efficiency of the capital’s wastewater evacuation network.
Waiting for Macron and Hidalgo
A lot of work has been done to make the river swimmable, including a 50,000 m3 retention basin located at the Gare d’Austerlitz. In total, 1.4 billion euros have been injected into the sanitation plan, while the decree prohibiting swimming in the river dates back to 1923. The Paris City Hall and the organizing committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games assure that the events will be able to take place on July 30 and 31 and August 8 and 9. But the possibility of heavy rain or a peak in water pollution cannot be ruled out and no plan B has been officially mentioned for the moment.
Before Amélie Oudéa-Castéra’s swim in relatively clear water, the river had been showing an unwelcoming color in recent days, particularly because of the heavy rains. Eyes will once again be fixed on the river when President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo take the plunge, as they promised before the Olympics. Anne Hidalgo has already had to postpone her swim, originally scheduled for June 23, because of the legislative elections. A swim on July 17 has been mentioned but has not been confirmed.