Paris will soon open the River Seine to swimmers for the first time in 100 years, as part of a cleanup ahead of the 2024 Olympics.
The city is investing £1.2 billion in a regeneration project that will allow the triathlon, marathon swimming, and Para-triathlon events to take place in the river, as reported by the BBC.
Furthermore, three open-air swimming areas in Paris are set to open to the public by 2025.
Pierre Rabadan, deputy Paris mayor in charge of the Olympics, told the BBC: “When people see athletes swimming in the Seine with no health problems, they’ll be confident themselves to start going back in the Seine.
“It’s our contribution for the future.”
Paris’s river has been closed to swimmers for a century due to its dirty water, partly caused by industrial sewage.
But the city has built an underground reservoir to store the water that would have otherwise run into the Seine during heavy rain.
Officials say that the underground reservoir means that only on very rare occasions will the Seine be unsafe to swim in.
Meanwhile in London, swimming in much of the Thames has been banned since 2012, a year after comedian David Walliams’s charity swim sparked a surge in interest in wild swimming.
At the time, Mr Williams suffered from a stomach bug resulting in severe vomiting and diarrhoea.
As a result, a bylaw was introduced preventing people from swimming between Crossness and Putney Bridge.
In 2013, more than 300 competitors who swam from Hampton Court to Kingston Bridge were taken ill, leading Public Health England to issue a health warning about the dangers of swimming in the Thames.
According to the Port of London Authority, the risks to swimmers include powerful tides, cold water, sewage, and ships. Around 30 people get into difficulty in the Thames each year.
