See How Clean? Paris Mayor Swims the Seine

After months of anticipation, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip in the long-polluted Seine River on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise to show the river is clean enough to host open swimming competitions during the 2024 Olympics—and the opening ceremony on the river nine days away. Clad in a wetsuit and goggles, Hidalgo plunged into the river near the imposing-looking City Hall, her office, and the Notre Dame Cathedral. Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet joined her, reports the AP, along with swimmers from local swimming clubs. "The Seine is exquisite," said Hidalgo from the water. After emerging, she continued to rave, "The water is very, very good. A little cool, but not so bad.''

She also said today was "a dream" and a "testimony that we have achieved a lot of work," referencing the city's "swimming plan" that launched in 2015. They swam down the river for about 100 meters, switching between crawl and breaststroke. It's part of a broader effort to showcase the river's improved cleanliness ahead of the Summer Games, which kick off July 26 with a lavish open-air ceremony that includes athletes parading in boats on the Seine. Daily water quality tests in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements. Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century.

Since 2015, organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants. Originally planned for June, Hidalgo's swim was postponed due to snap parliamentary elections in France. On the initial date, the hashtag "jechiedanslaSeine" ("I'm pooping in the Seine") trended on social media as some threatened to protest the Olympics by defecating upstream.

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The Seine will host several open water swimming events during the Games, including marathon swimming at the Olympic Games and the swimming legs of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons. (More 2024 Paris Olympics stories.)