After being rejected many timesit’s official: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Olympic Organizing Committee President Toni Estangue and Ile-de-France Prefect Marc Guillaume will swim the Seine on Wednesday morning, nine days before the Olympics and trials. planned in the river.
Minister of Sports and Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra bathed in the Seine on Saturday morning, a few days ahead of the trio.
The event, much anticipated since Anne Hidalgo promised, will take place at 8:30 am in Bras Marie, between the Saint-Paul district and the Île Saint-Louis. Already there, in the summer of 2023, open water swimmers, accompanied by two deputy mayors, set off. Later, the mayor of Paris announced three future Paris beach destinations planned from 2025.
the core bacteriological quality?
“After the swim, an open water race will be organized with the participation of many licensed swimmers,” said the mayor’s office, stating that “successful holding of the event is a prerequisite for several criteria: weather, quality and flow of water.”
The date was made known after the event’s partner open water swimming organization Open Swim Stars invited its participants to “join” the mayor to “swim with him in Bras Marie”. However, doubts remain about the bacteriological quality of the tea.
After several explosions bad reviews Due to very rainy weather in June, the municipality and regional prefecture announced generally positive results over the past two weeks.
E. coli, one of the two measured for the amount of faecal bacteria of the river, whether bathing is allowed or not, is increasingly in the spotlight: between July 3 and 9, the sampling point at Alexander III Bridge, the Olympic venue, is only above the norm. a standard of 1000 colony forming units (CFU)/100 ml per day.
The lower reaches of the Seine
According to the last two samples taken by Surfrider NGO at the same site on June 26 and July 4, the content of E. Coli and enterococci there is also in line with the standards of international sports federations.
Another good news for the organizers: the flow of the river Seine, which has swelled during the last few rainy months, fell below 400 m3/second on Tuesday. However, it remains far from seasonal norms, between 100-150 m3/second.
Originally scheduled for June 23, the historic landing, breaking a promise made by former mayor Jacques Chirac more than three decades ago, was postponed due to the polluted state of the river as well as legislative elections.
Emmanuel Macron, who assured that he will swim in the river at the end of February without specifying a date, “refused” the mayor’s invitation to June 23.
For this new date, “I think he has a week with other priorities,” Ms Oudéa-Castéra said in an interview with AFP on Monday, referring to the political situation in the country.