Anne Hidalgo persists and signs.
The mayor of Paris confirmed in an interview with Ouest-France that she would dive into the Seine before the Olympic Games.
The elected official indicated that she would swim next July, a few days before the triathlon swimming event planned in the river.
The location of the dive has already been identified: at the foot of the Town Hall.
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“Just below the Town Hall at Pont-Marie, where swimming will be permanent after the Olympics. It will be a beautiful dive full of symbolism
,” she assured a little less than a month after having announced her intention to go swimming in the Seine, on the occasion of her wishes.
“If he (Emmanuel Macron) wants to come, he will obviously be welcome
, ”
Anne Hidalgo
The councilor might not be the only one to put on a swimsuit next summer.
Anne Hidalgo intends to attract sports personalities around her and in particular the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
“If he (Emmanuel Macron) wants to come, he will obviously be welcome
,” she said.
Swimming in the Seine, which was already practiced under the Ancien Régime, was banned in Paris a century ago (1923) by a prefectural decree, and a river brigade constantly patrols to prevent diving.
The Olympic Games must inaugurate the reunion of swimming with the Seine: the triathlon and open water swimming events will start from the Alexandre-III bridge which connects the Grand Palais to Les Invalides.
But the organizers of the Paris Olympics faced serious disappointments last summer during these test events.
Before the cancellation of the two triathlon events (para and mixed), it was the open water swimming events that had to be canceled due to pollution caused by an unusual summer rain episode.
Since 2016, the State and local authorities in Ile-de-France have invested around 1.4 billion euros to make the Seine and the Marne, its main tributary, swimmable.