As Paris prepares to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, which begins on July 26, the city’s famous Seine River has stirred up *a lot* of safety concerns. The main one surrounds those athletes who will be competing in their respective events, such as swimming and triathlons, in the Seine River.
Despite the efforts to clean the water in preparation for the Olympics, NPR has reported that the river has tested unsafe for humans in recent weeks, and cleaner on other days. So which one is it?
On July 17, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, took a dip in the iconic river to demonstrate that the Seine is indeed clean enough to host outdoor swimming events during the Olympics. She will take to the water along with chief Paris Games organizer Tony Estanguet, a former canoeist, and the top security official for the greater Paris region, Marc Guillaume. After that, an open-water swimming race will take place.
Though the Seine River is expected to be used extensively during the 2024 Summer Olympics. However, many are wondering what will happen if the Seine is officially proven to be unsafe and what that means for the athletes who will be using the body of water for their events.
According to ABC News, officials initially insisted there would be “no plan B,” but organizers said on July 5 that open-water swimming might take place in the Marne River instead. It is also an option for officials to delay the triathlon event or, in the worst-case scenario, eliminate the swimming portion of the competition.
Even 75-year-old Joel Stratte-McClure braved the waters of the Seine on July 4. “I’m very impressed with everything the French have done to try to clean up this river, which is filthy, and want to celebrate it,” Stratte-McClure said. “If things go really bad and I don’t survive the swim, it will at least give an alert to the American and other swimmers in the triathlon that maybe they shouldn’t do it.” Luckily, though, Stratte-McClure shared that he felt fine after his 20-minute swim.
Paris officials have worked intensely to clean the Seine extensively to minimize health risks from both pollution and bacteria. In an effort to improve the Seine’s rather infamous reputation in spite of its iconic status, it is planned to open three public bathing sites by Summer 2025. Heavy rains often dirty the Seine as sewage typically overflows into the river, and the E. coli levels are concerningly high, causing many to feel skeptical about the idea of swimming in the water for a long period of time.
To swim or not to swim? It seems as though the Seine requires extensive cleaning to become a safe place to swim, which may even take years, especially for Olympic athletes of the relevant categories.