For the past 100 years and up until a few days ago, the answer seemed to be no. Yesterday, however, the city's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, kept her promise that it would be and she would be one of the first in.
To cheers and applause, she led a hundred officials, athletes and local people by donning a wetsuit and taking a dip in the river after a barrage of tests showed it was finally safe.
"It's a dream day... and the sun is out," Hidalgo said after performing a respectable crawl 100m downstream in water measured at 20C (68F).
"It's sweet and wonderful and the result of a lot of work. I remember at the very beginning in 2015 when we began our campaign for the Games, the International Triathlon Federation said why not a triathlon in the Seine? Will athletes be able to swim in the Seine? Today we can say they can."
This story is from the July 18, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the July 18, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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