Swimming events in the River Seine for next summer’s Olympics in Paris are still in doubt, even as the date grows closer. Tests of the water quality are still showing unacceptable levels of dangerous bacteria in the water, despite a number of measures taken to correct it.
However, city officials say they are not worried, because over the next weeks several new public works will go online, including a large purification basin near the Gare d’Austerlitz, and completing the connection of barges on the river to the city’s sewer system so they will no longer dump in the stream.
The river is to be the venue for a 10K marathon swim as well as the swimming portion of the triathlon.
Olympic officials say there is no ‘Plan B’ location for the open-water swimming portion of the triathlon, and if it is not possible to use the river it will become a duathlon, as happened in the 2023 Olympic test event in Paris. On the other hand, they point out, if weather conditions raise pollution levels when the event is scheduled near the beginning of the games, it might be possible nearer the end.
