French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra took a symbolic dip in the Seine on Saturday to allay concerns about water quality ahead of the start of the Paris Olympics.
Dressed in a full-body wetsuit, Oudéa-Castéra dove into the famous river after a first slip and swam a few meters near the Alexandre III bridge, where the event will take place. Olympic open water swimming competition.
“We have kept our promise,” he told news channel ‘BFMTV’, referring to an earlier promise to swim in the Seine before the start of the Games on July 26. She was accompanied by Alexis Hanquinquant, France’s Paralympic flag bearer.
Since Swimming in the Seine was banned in 1923 due to pollutionFrench politicians have promised make the river float again. Former Paris mayor and later president Jacques Chirac promised in 1988 that the river would be clean enough to swim in by the end of his term. a promise that was not kept.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo also plans to swim in the Seine to demonstrate its cleanliness. In February, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to bathe, too. But he added: “I’m not going to give you the date: there is a risk that you will be there.”
Hanquinquant, a paratriathlete, participated in Saturday’s swim alongside Oudéa-Castéra and experienced first-hand the conditions that await him in the competition on September 1. If there are problems with water quality: organizers have backup plans.
