Follow our Olympic coverage in the lead-up to Paris.
PARIS — It’s spring in Paris, and the city is about to host the Olympics for the first time in a century.
Temporary stadiums are rising at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, in the square next to the Orangerie (the site of Monet’s mural), and in the Gardens of Versailles. But most people will never see the most important Olympic facility, the $1.5 billion underground tunnels and water tanks that will make the Seine River, which flows through the heart of the city, suitable for triathlon and marathon swimming events and beyond.
Yes, you read that right – swimming in the Seine. This heart-melting river has been the scene of countless marriage proposals, and over the years, couples have written their names on padlocks here, hung them on the Pont des Arts, and then thrown the keys into the river, “locking their love”. Only those who longed for a baptism of darkness, sewage, feces and various other detritus would think of swimming in the river, and for about a century swimming remained illegal.
Organizers of the Paris Olympics tried this in a number of test events last year, including the triathlon. Also there was Kirsten Kasper, a long-time triathlete who will be making her Olympic debut in Paris. She remembers standing on the departure dock, “looking up at the Eiffel Tower and smiling.”
The “heads up” part may have something to do with this.
Last summer, men’s triathletes jumped into the Seine as part of testing for the 2024 Olympics. The $1.5 billion underground system is designed to help clean up polluted waters. (Bertrand Gay/AFP via Getty Images)
As for the smile, it matched the one heard by Lambis Konstantinidis, director of planning and coordination for the Paris Games, when he asked athletes about their time in the river.
“No one can say that this was not a unique experience,” he said.
That’s one way to describe it.
Whether Olympic and Paralympic athletes preparing to compete in the Seine will have the opportunity to swim in the river remains an open question. It turns out that a $1.5 billion tank designed to capture sewage that typically flows into the river during heavy rains, combined with years of forcing houseboats, ships and factories to stop polluting the river, can only do so much.
In early May, officials unveiled the Austerlitz Water Basin, which is located below the Austerlitz train station on the left bank of the river in the city’s southeast quadrant. It can hold 13.2 million gallons of water, enough to fill 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
In late May, it rained for a week in Paris. This wreaked havoc on the French Open tennis tournament and made the Seine unswimmable as rainwater flooded a system of water tanks and tunnels, allowing street runoff and feces to flow back into the river.
Officials knew this could happen. They knew this could happen during the Olympics, even though late July and early August, when the Games are held, are generally warm and dry in the French capital. They hope the weather pattern continues.
World swimming’s governing body World Aquatics has advised organizers of open water events to consider alternative locations to deal with reduced water quality on race day. Paris officials considered their options but ultimately decided they hoped it wouldn’t rain and that the warm sunshine of a typical Paris summer would kill enough of the dangerous bacteria.
There was no plan B other than delaying the race for a few days and letting the nasty water flow downstream. They said they could also turn the triathlon into a triathlon involving just biking and running, but there are no pristine lakes on the city’s outskirts that would be ready for the 6.2-mile swim event.
“We will not do anything to put athletes at risk,” Konstantinidis said.
Paris organizers are counting on a new pond beneath Austerlitz train station to keep the Seine clean during the Olympics and beyond. (Christina Purura/AFP via Getty Images)
Whether the water is clean enough for the games has become a quadrennial topic among Olympic organizers, who are increasingly leaning toward staging the events in scenic waters that look great on television. Open water racing at the Ironman World Championships isn’t all about swimming off the coast of Kona, Hawaii. But the beautiful scenery on TV and the games in the heart of the host city can often bring some icky water.
In 2016, Rio de Janeiro wanted to keep swimmers away from Copacabana Beach, which for years had been a hub for the city’s sewage. Five years later, Tokyo had swimmers competing at Odaiba Marine Park in the city’s busy port, which also stores large amounts of city sewage and runoff. Officials installed a series of screens designed to capture some of the harmful bacteria in the excess water flow.
U.S. triathlon gold medalist Morgan Pearson said the water in Tokyo was “much turbid” than what she experienced at last year’s test event in Paris. He didn’t practice swimming in the river because he decided familiarity with the current wasn’t worth the risk of getting sick.
“I’ve lived in cleaner water my whole life,” Pearson said of the Seine, “but there’s nothing that stands out.”
In fact, bacteria rarely do this.
Like organizers of all major open-water competitions, those responsible for the Paris Games will adhere to the World Health Organization’s World Standards for Safe Swimming, which cover levels of E. coli and enterococci – the bacteria most closely associated with sewage contamination.
Open water venues will certainly be on TV, but health concerns for athletes swimming in the Seine will continue throughout Olympic competition. (Bertrand Gay/AFP via Getty Images)
This requires classifying “good water quality”, which for those microbiology students means less than 500 “colony forming units” for E. coli and less than 500 “colony forming units” for enterococci per 100 ml of water. 200 units. Colony forming units are collections of cells. The Seine must also pass visual tests for turbidity and floating debris. Testing is expected to take place at multiple locations on the track in the days leading up to the race.
Taylor Spivey, another member of the USA Triathlon team, grew up working as a lifeguard on a Southern California beach near Los Angeles. She knew from a young age that swimming after a storm was a bad idea. She didn’t forget. Last year, she swam in the Seine during a test match.
“No one got sick,” she said with a smile.
All Olympic organizers pray that the Games will leave a legacy and transform their cities. For the French, ensuring that Olympic and Paralympic competitors are not the last to swim in the Seine is an important part of this.
Limited swimming is already allowed in some of the city’s canals. The city plans to open three swimming areas along the river in 2025, assuming the Austerlitz watershed plays its part and the city’s residents are ready to take that very concrete leap of faith.
“Parisians are getting used to” the idea of swimming in the city’s waterways, Constantinidis said, “but they need to see this.”
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(Above: Dan Goldfarb / Competitor; Photo: Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
