French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has taken a symbolic dip in the Seine in a bid to ease concerns about water quality before the start of the Paris Olympics.
People sit along the Seine river with stands installed on its banks, Thursday, July 4, 2024 in Paris . The Seine river will host the Paris Olympic Games opening ceremony on July 26. PARIS — French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra took a symbolic dip in the Seine on Saturday in a bid to ease concerns aboutafter an initial slip and swam a few meters near the Alexandre III bridge, where the Olympic open water swimming competition will be held.
“We held our promise,” she said to BFMTV, referring to an earlier pledge to swim in the Seine before the Games begin on July 26.Ever since swimming in the Seine was banned in 1923 due to pollution levels, French politicians have promised to make the river swimmable again. Former Paris mayor and later president Jacques Chirac famously vowed in 1988 that the river would be clean enough to swim in by the end of his term, a promise that went unfulfilled., too.
Hanquinquant, a para-triathlete, joined Oudéa-Castéra in Saturday’s swim, experiencing firsthand the conditions he will face in competition on Sept. 1.
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