Outlook Sports Desk
The Paris Olympics 2024, scheduled from July 26 to August 11, will kick off with the opening ceremony at the River Seine. This historic location will also host the swimming events for triathlon and marathon.
The Seine River is 777-kilometer-long, located in northern France. Its drainage basin is in Paris. The port of Le Havre, at the mouth of the Seine, is France's largest international shipping port.
In May 2024, Paris officials unveiled a large underground water storage basin near Austerlitz train station. Its purpose is to collect rainwater overflow and prevent wastewater from entering the Seine River.
Due to the pollutant water it has been illegal to swim at Seine for more than a century. To clean up the river, Paris invested 1.4 billion euros (USD 1.5 billion). The bacteria-laden wastewater enters the river during periods of heavy rain and makes it unsafe for swimming.
Around 45,000 police officers and gendarmes, along with 10,000 soldiers from the Sentinelle military operation, are being deployed to secure the river for the Paris Olympics 2024 grand sporting event.
The monitoring group Eau de Paris conducts daily tests on the river water, revealing unsafe levels of E. coli in recent weeks. Early July results showed improvement, with levels previously at 2000 CFU/100mL near the Alexandra III Bridge after heavy rainfall.
If heavy rain alters the Seine's conditions, the triathlon will be turned into a duathlon (only cycling and running), and the marathon swimming will be moved to Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium outside Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to take a swim in the Seine as part of efforts to highlight how the river has been cleaned up for the Paris Olympics 2024.
Following improved water quality in the Seine, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo fulfilled her promise by swimming in the river on Wednesday, July 17, 2024.