Paris Mayor Takes a Dip in the Seine Ahead of the Summer Olympics

Is the Seine River clean enough for swimmers competing in the Summer Olympics?

If you ask Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, the answer is yes.

Hidalgo plunged into the long-polluted waterway on July 17 to show the world that the Seine is safe ahead of the Olympics, which kick off later this month. She wore goggles and a wetsuit while taking a dip near City Hall, not far from Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Two other officials joined her in the water: Tony Estanguet, a former Olympic canoeist and head of the Paris Olympics’ organizing committee, and Marc Guillaume, the government official responsible for safety and traffic on the Seine. Members of local swimming clubs also participated in the demonstration while curious onlookers watched from the river bank.

The swimmers paddled for about 300 feet, alternating between breaststroke and crawl as they went.

“The water is wonderful,” Hidalgo told NBC News’ Nancy Ing after getting out of the river.

Over the weekend, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the French sports minister, and Alexis Hanquinquant, France’s Paralympic flag bearer, also took a symbolic swim in the Seine.

Paris has spent $1.5 billion to clean up the Seine and overhaul its infrastructure over the past year or so. Crews installed new underground pumps, pipes and tanks to prevent untreated wastewater—which contains harmful bacteria—from flowing into the Seine after rainstorms, according to the New York Times’ Catherine Porter. The city also improved sewage treatment plants and began requiring moored boats to use the city’s sewage networks for their wastewater.

LIVE: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo swims in the River Seine

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When Paris hosted the Olympics in 1900, several swimming events were held in the river. But more than two decades later, in 1923, officials banned swimming in the Seine because of pollution, boat traffic and currents. When Paris again hosted the games in 1924, the swimming events were held at the Piscine des Tourelles, now known as the Georges-Vallerey swimming pool.

When the city won the bid for the 2024 games, officials began to imagine what it would be like to see athletes in the Seine.

“Swimming at the foot of the Eiffel Tower will be very romantic,” Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of urban planning, told Time’s Vivienne Walt last year.

The plan was ambitious—and expensive. Officials knew there was a chance their efforts would not work and that the water quality in the Seine would still not be good enough to safely hold the swimming events, but they decided to try anyway.

In June, it looked as if their plan might have failed. Tests showed unsafe levels of E. coli and enterococci bacteria. In early July, the water showed signs of improvement.

The mayor’s swim aside, whether athletes will ever touch the water is still an open question, report Tom Nouvian and Suman Naishadham for the Associated Press.

The outcome will depend on the weather: If Paris gets a lot of rain right before the games start, bacteria levels are likely to rise. But if drier, sunnier weather is in the forecast, the Seine events could go on as planned. (Next year, the city hopes to open the Seine up to public bathers, too.)

The first competition scheduled to take place in the Seine is the men’s triathlon on July 30, followed by the women’s triathlon on July 31. The mixed relay triathlon race is slated for August 5, while the open-water swimming events are scheduled for August 8 and 9.

Organizers do have backup plans in case water quality is an issue. They could postpone the races for a few days to see if the conditions improve, or, in a worst-case scenario, they could remove the swimming leg from the triathlons. That would make them duathlons, with just running and biking.

During the opening ceremony, thousands of athletes are also scheduled to sail down a 3.7-mile stretch of the Seine toward the Eiffel Tower at sunset in front of 300,000 spectators. But water quality is not expected to affect those plans.

“At the end of the day, it’s the Olympics, and the safety of the athletes has to come first,” says Ivan Puskovitch, an open-water swimmer for Team USA, to ABC News’ Doc Louallen and Ines de la Cuetara.

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.