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Thirteen days before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Seine is beautiful, the Seine is good! This Saturday, July 13, 2024, the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castéra was the first to bathe in the river which hosts several Olympic sports, and thus beat the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who must dive into the Seine in the days to come.
She did it ! This Saturday, July 13 around 7:30 a.m., Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, was the first to set off into the Seine, to prove to the whole world that the river which will host several Olympic sports in the coming weeks was finally clean and healthy. Benjamin Duhamel's cousin was able to be accompanied in this by the disabled triathlete Alexis Hanquinquant, gold medalist at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
By jumping into the Seine this Saturday, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra stole the show from Anne Hidalgo, since the mayor of Paris promised to swim next week, shortly before the launch of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. originally on June 23 but postponed due to the water quality still considered degraded, the swim for the mayor of Paris should finally take place this Wednesday, July 17. This information should be taken with a grain of salt since Anne Hidalgo can postpone her swim at any time if the thresholds are exceeded again.
The Seine is to host three Olympic events over 7 days. On July 30 and 31 and then August 5, the triathletes will be the first to set off into the Seine. They will be followed on August 8 and 9 by the marathon swimmers, then on September 1 and 2 by the para-athletes. For now, the flow of the Seine is considered abnormally high for the season: it was still at 500 m3/second at the start of the week, while it is supposed to be between 100 and 150 m3/s in the middle of summer. .. But the prefect of Paris, Marc Guillaume, wanted to reassure the athletes by indicating that the Seine was now "up to standard" on a bacteriological level.
Animal feces and urine found in the Seine
By bathing, or rather sliding, in the Seine this Saturday morning, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra sent a strong signal to the athletes, showing them that it was possible to jump into the Parisian river, without fearing a risk of leptospirosis for example. The bacteriological studies carried out on the Seine were to the disadvantage of the Paris town hall, since they demonstrated the presence of rat urine and feces. These can lead to several illnesses, ranging from a simple, easily treatable adenovirus or rotavirus, to more serious illnesses such as leptospirosis and hepatitis. Dermatological risks are also mentioned in the reports, especially if the swimmer's skin is damaged or injured...
But for several months, Anne Hidalgo, her teams and the Ministry of Sports headed by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra have been working to make the Seine healthy, and thus allow athletes from around the world to swim there without major health risks. The cost of cleaning up the Seine for the Olympic Games is exorbitant, and has been estimated at 1.4 billion euros, half of which is at state expense. This plan for the sanitation of Sequanian waters, called the Water Quality and Bathing Plan, aims to eradicate the presence of two dangerous bacteria found abundantly in the Seine: Escherichia Coli and enterococci...
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