Paris mayor is confident that water quality will allow Olympic swimming in the River Seine
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she is confident water quality will be up to the Olympics standards this summer
PARIS (AP) — Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she was confident water quality in the River Seine will be up to Olympic standards this summer — and that she’ll be able to prove it by swimming there, possibly alongside President Emmanuel Macron.
The Seine is the venue for marathon swimming at the Games and the swimming leg of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.
Asked Tuesday about whether she’ll meet her promise to swim in the Seine before the Games, Hidalgo said “for sure, because water quality will be good.”
For decades, the Seine was too toxic for most fish and for swimmers, useful mainly as a waterway to transport goods and people or as a watery grave for discarded bicycles and other trash. Swimming in the Seine has, with some exceptions, been illegal since 1923.
