The 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris are set to be a spectacular showcase of athleticism and international camaraderie.
The rich schedule spans various sports, but arguably, fans around the world look forward to the swimming events as the hallmark of the Summer Olympics.
The opening ceremony will kick off the games on July 26, setting the stage for two weeks of intense competition. Notably, the swimming events have been extended to include an extra day of action, ensuring that fans don’t miss a moment of aquatic excitement.
Organizers hope that the Seine will have a starring role in the Paris Games, by playing host to the opening ceremony and swimming events like the triathlon, during the tournament.
But the excitement may be considerably diminished by the announcement that the Seine River, flowing through the heart of Paris, is still too polluted to allow swimming to take place.
The river has been a subject of concern due to its pollution levels, which have raised questions about its suitability for Olympic swimming events. Despite a significant $1.5 billion cleanup effort, recent tests have indicated that the water quality still falls short of the standards required for safe swimming. The efforts have involved trying to limit the amount of untreated water entering the Seine and retrofitting old pipes that connect to the city’s sewage system.
Ahead of the cleanup, the Seine’s pollution levels were so formidable that swimming in the river has been banned since 1923.
Despite their declared optimism that the river would be safe by the time of the Olympics, bacterial tests conducted in mid-June show that the Seine is still too polluted to host the planned triathlon and marathon swimming events, Paris region official Marc Guillaume said at a press conference Friday.
“There is no doubt that the quality of water today is not up to par,” Guillaume said.
However, he said he was “confident” the swimming events would go forward as planned, noting that heavy rains recently had hurt the results and likely don’t reflect the weather anticipated for the Games’ opening on July 26.
“At one point or another, the weather will change, it’s going to stop raining and we’re going to have sunshine … It is in summer conditions that we must be able to examine swimmability,” he added. The first swimming events in the Seine are set to take place on July 30, so Guillaume’s optimism may indeed turn out to be justified, but for the moment, it looks like they may have to find another venue for what are arguably, the most anticipated events of any summer Olympic games.
