Olympians Finally Got to Swim in the Seine River

Will they or won’t they? After months of uncertainty, Olympic athletes have officially taken the plunge into the long-polluted waters of the Seine River in Paris.

The waterway has been a hot topic in the lead-up to the Summer Games, which are underway now through August 11. Swimming in the Seine has been banned since 1923, primarily because of water pollution. But last spring, the city announced an ambitious $1.5 billion plan to clean up the Seine and host Olympic competitions in its waters (with an eventual goal of opening the river for public swimming).

City leaders and Olympic organizers were confident they could make the river safe enough for athletes in time for the Games. But many onlookers remained skeptical that Olympians would ever touch the iconic river, which runs right through the heart of Paris.

When the city’s sanitation system becomes overwhelmed, such as during heavy rains, untreated wastewater overflows into the Seine. This creates unsafe water quality conditions, with high levels of E. coli and enterococci bacteria.

Some strains of E. coli are harmless, but others can cause health problems ranging from diarrhea to urinary tract infections. Enterococci are not usually harmful to humans, but they do indicate the presence of fecal waste.

In the months leading up to the games, which kicked off July 26, water quality experts tested the Seine every day. The results were like a rollercoaster ride: At times, testing showed the water was clean enough for Olympic open-water swimmers and triathletes. At others, it was unsafe. Journalists reported regularly on the flip-flopping results.

Then, in mid-July, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo staged a demonstration to show that the Seine was, in fact, safe. On July 17, Hidalgo—along with other officials and members of local swimming clubs—plunged into the waters and swam around. Still, even after their highly publicized dip, the river’s water quality levels remained in flux.

The Seine took center stage once again during the unconventional opening ceremony, which featured a parade of boats carrying athletes through the city center. A rainstorm drenched the athletes and the performers during the event and continued into Saturday.

Those same rains also contributed to elevated levels of bacteria in the river, which forced organizers to cancel training sessions and postpone the men’s triathlon race. Finally, though, on July 31, triathletes dove into the Seine near the Pont Alexandre III bridge and started swimming.

“The pollution has been cleaned up,” Hidalgo told reporters, as reported by CNN’s Kyle Feldscher, adding that she and other city leaders had “won our bet.”

“I’ve never thought we would not succeed,” she said.

The women competed first, starting at around 8 a.m., followed by the men a few hours later. Most paddled close to the river’s edge as they completed the nearly one-mile-long course. When they finished swimming, they climbed out, ran up a flight of stairs and hopped onto their bikes for the second leg of the race, a 25-mile ride through the streets of Paris. After that, they ran 6.2 miles to the finish line.

France’s Cassandre Beaugrand won gold in the women’s event, while Britain’s Alex Yee nabbed the top spot for the men. After the race, both athletes addressed the water quality issue head-on.

“I have no doubts about the quality of the Seine,” Beaugrand said, as reported by ESPN. “We’ve swum in worse water.”

Yee, meanwhile, told Pat Graham of the Associated Press that triathletes were lucky to have the “most beautiful venue of any race in the Olympics.”

He added: “I guess that came with the small penalty at the risk of the Seine being dirty.”

But the Seine conversation is far from over. Next up, the river is slated to host the triathlon mixed relay on August 5 and the open-water marathon swimming events on August 8 and 9. Water quality testing will continue ahead of those events.

Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.