Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo Promises To Swim in Seine Before Olympics

By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam

The Seine is at the heart of both Paris and the 2024 Olympic organizers’ plans for the summer’s upcoming Games. But despite a billion dollar plan to clean up the iconic river, its water quality has been a major source of concern for Paris 2024 organizers. Poor water quality forced organizers to cancel the Open Water Swimming World Cup in August 2023, which was the Olympic test event. Later, the poor water quality was attributed to a faulty sewer valve upstream.

Earlier this month, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo announced she will take a “historic dip” in the Seine before the Games begin. Swimming in the Seine has been banned since 1923. But a major part of the “Swimming Plan” is the river cleanup’s legacy. City officials are planning to have three public open-air swimming pools open by summer 2025.

Hidalgo’s promise echoes the one made by Jacques Chirac in 1990, when he was also Paris’ mayor. Chirac promised a grand clean-up of the Seine, which he would celebrate by swimming in the river “in front of witnesses” by 1993. Chirac died in 2019 without putting a toe in the river, leaving his promise unfulfilled.

A year after his death, the Olympic bid revitalized Chirac’s dream. And in her address to reporters at City Hall, Hidalgo referenced Chirac’s promise. “Everyone said it was impossible and we’ve done it,” she declared. “We are going to swim in the Seine…more than 30 years after Jacques Chirac’s promise.”

The Seine is essential to the Paris Games. Not only will it host the Opening Ceremonies, but triathletes and open water swimmers will set off from the Alexandre III bridge during the Olympics and the Paralympics.

Even after the cancelled test event, organizers maintain there is no alternate plan for where to hold open water events if pollution in the Seine is too high. Several more measures should be in place by this summer. That includes the currently under-construction Austerlitz storage basin. When completed, it and the connected tunnel will hold 13.2 million gallons of water.

But, even with a completed tank and a malfunction-free sewage system, rain could still derail organizers’ plans. Paris’ sewer system funnels both rainwater and wastewater. Both get released into the Seine when storms overwhelm the system. According to Samuel Colin-Canivez, the city’s lead engineer for the sewage plans, this happens about 12 times a year.

If it rains the entire week before the Games, Hidalgo’s Deputy of Sport Pierre Rabadan told The New York Times in 2023 “[we] know the quality of the water—even with all the work we’ve done—probably won’t be excellent.” If the Austerlitz tank is full, organizers will have to postpone, wait a few days, and test the water quality again.

But now it isn’t just Olympians who will be awaiting word for the river’s water quality. Hidalgo will be planning her swim too, as she attempts to keep Chirac’s promise from 34 years ago.

SwimSwam: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo Promises To Swim in Seine Before Olympics