Paris officials remain confident that The Seine will be swimmable for the Olympics later this month. Unsafe levels of bacteria would suggest otherwise, but it appears as though the host city plans to power through.
French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra took a symbolic swim in the “river” on Saturday to prove that it can be done.
However, her “swim” was rather symbolic of the entire process thus far. She made a conscious effort to keep her nose and mouth above the water after taking a tumble on her way in.
The Seine runs through the center of Paris. They call it a river, but it is technically a drainage basin. It is supposed to host all of the open-water swimming events at the Olympics in less than two weeks.
Whether that is possible has yet to be determined.
Swimming in the Seine has been illegal for more than 120 years. High levels of bacteria make it unsafe. Much of the bacteria, E. Coli, stems from heavy rain that overwhelms the sewage system and leaks poop water into the basin.
Paris and France have spent approximately $1.5 billion to clean it up for the Games. The efforts have been a pretty epic failure thus far.
Bacteria levels were well above the safe standard at the end of June. They weren’t even close in the weeks prior, which forced the postponement of the Parisian Poop Protest. Elected officials were supposed to swim in the Seine to prove its safety on June 23. “Political reasons” conveniently forced them to reschedule.
The Seine is clean…er than before!
Paris city hall announced on Friday that the Seine met the required safety standard for “11 days or 10 days” of the past 12. City hall official Pierre Rabadan added that there may have to be “modifications,” but did not provide any further detail.
The National Institute of Health classifies “good” and “sufficient” water quality as less than 500 colony-forming units of E. Coli per 100 milliliters of water. The World Triathlon Federation sets its limit at 900 colony-forming units.
Water in the Seine is at or below the 900-unit limit, kind of.
The triathlon is going to begin at the Alexandre III Bridge. Even though there have been unsafe spikes, E. Coli levels were sub-900 units on Monday and Tuesday.
That cannot be said for the entire course. Tests at the Bercy and Bras Marie locations of the Seine revealed contamination levels above 1,000 colony-forming units earlier this week. It didn’t meet the limit.
Nevertheless, officials are counting it as a win. French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra went for a dip in the Seine on Saturday morning with Alexis Hanquinquant, the Paralympic flag bearer for France.
The latter went for an actual swim. The former slipped on her way in like a scene from a cartoon and kept her mouth and nose completely out of the water— which largely defeats the purpose.
To her credit, Oudéa-Castéra did eventually submerge herself in the Seine and dove from the dock. She then immediately returned to the surface and once again held her head above water.
Although this is a big step in the right direction, the water of the Seine remains questionable at best. It seems like the city and Olympic officials are just going to push forward as planned as long as it is close enough.
Mayor Anne Hildago promised to hop in the water next week and plans to keep her promise. French president Emmanual Macron also vowed to take a dip but has not set a date.
If Hildalgo and Macron don’t put their mouth and nose in the water, it would be another farce!