PARIS (AP) — Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said she was confident water quality in the River Seine will be up to Olympic standards this summer — and that she’ll be able to prove it by swimming there, possibly alongside President Emmanuel Macron.
The Seine is the venue for marathon swimming at the Games and the swimming leg of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.
Asked Tuesday about whether she’ll meet her promise to swim in the Seine before the Games, Hidalgo said “for sure, because water quality will be good.”
For decades, the Seine was too toxic for most fish and for swimmers, useful mainly as a waterway to transport goods and people or as a watery grave for discarded bicycles and other trash. Swimming in the Seine has, with some exceptions, been illegal since 1923.
Hidalgo mentioned new facilities that have been specially built to clean up the river, whose water quality was recently denounced by an environmental group.
Outrage as Columbia president Minouche Shafik cancels all in
Conservative Brazilians laud Elon Musk at rally in support of ex
Elena Rybakina beats Marta Kostyuk 6
Oklahoma bus driver crashes into a building after a passenger punches him, police say
Milwaukee man charged in dismemberment death pleads not guilty
Kyle Hendricks struggles again in 5th start this season for the Chicago Cubs
London police to meet with Jewish leaders as protests spark safety concerns
3 hospitalized after knife attack on party boat in New York City along Brooklyn waterfront
Electrician, 55, filmed racially abusing Muslim women as they returned from a pro
Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon placed on 10