Over the last month, news coverage remained skeptical, noting that there was ostensibly no ideal plan B for the relevant Olympic water competitions other than adjusting their dates. But as the weather gradually improved, sanitation authorities began adding a safe amount of performic acid, an organic compound, to the Seine to reduce the bacteria. Finally, the levels were trending in the right direction. And then, over the weekend, the minister of sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, took a dip of sorts, her awkwardness not entirely convincing.
Today, however, felt as official as it gets. In 2021, Hidalgo’s son Arthur Germain, who is an extreme adventurer, spent several weeks swimming the Seine to raise awareness about water pollution. The mayor, who joked that Germain had given her some pointers, noted that her own swim was “at once poetic and useful in terms of ecology, because if we can clean the Seine, we can clean the oceans.”
After Hidalgo made her exit (presumably to take a warm shower), some of the invited swimmers lingered on, simply enjoying the moment. Morgan and Gaël—who are accustomed to swimming in the Canal de l’Ourcq northeast of the city as part of a group called Les Ourcqs Polaires (a French play on polar bears)—said this was, indeed, a big deal. “Paris was born from the Seine centuries ago, so it was normal to bathe here,” said Morgan.