I saw a crazy Instagram video where the citizens are upset they are only trying to clean up the river for the Olympics not for the people that live there. They were trying to start a viral campaign to have everyone Sh8t in the river after the clean up is done.

Le. Coli, in French.

My wife is pretty well-traveled and said she'd never go back to Paris, for it was one of the dirtiest cities she visited. Combine this with the bedbug pandemic they're going through now and you literally couldn't pay me to go.

Is this the Russians again?

Setting aside the water quality of the Seine, why are they swimming in an unchlorinated body of water in the first place? Has that happened before?

kagis

Apparently this is part of a PR campaign for Paris or something, as they had this big push to reduce sewage in it to the point where it could be used for the Olympics. And it sounds like this is the first time that they're doing it in a river:

https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/paris-olympics-seine-river-swimming

Paris’ Seine River, forbidden for swimmers for 100 years, gets Olympic reboot

By OlympicTalk

Published April 11, 2023 04:17 AM

Because as well as hosting outdoor swim races, the Seine is going to be the centerpiece of Paris’ unprecedented Olympic Opening Ceremony. For the first time, it will take place not in a stadium setting but along the river and its banks.

So it needs to be ready. Officials have been going after homes upstream of Paris and houseboats on the Seine that were emptying their sewage and wastewater directly into the river. An Olympic law adopted in 2018 gave moored boats two years to hook up to Paris’ sewage network. Sewage treatment plants on the Seine and its tributary, the Marne, are also being improved.

I wonder if they have swimming pools designated for use as backups if this doesn't work out?

kagis

Apparently yes (no for an alternate location, but if the water quality is unacceptable, they plan to just defer the swimming races until it becomes acceptable):

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/sports/olympics/paris-olympics-seine-cleanup.html

But Rabadan also said there was no alternate plan: If the races must be postponed, organizers will simply wait a few days, test the water quality and try again.

That would keep them from getting eaten by the shark hiding in the catacombs

Shit River!

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Water in the Seine River had unsafe elevated levels of E. coli less than two months before swimming competitions are scheduled to take place in it during the Paris Olympics, according to test results published Friday.

Contamination levels in the first eight days of June, after persistent heavy rain in Paris, showed bacteria such as E. coli and enterococci beyond limits judged safe for athletes.

The report was published by monitoring group Eau de Paris one day after a senior International Olympic Committee executive said there were "no reasons to doubt" races will go ahead as scheduled in in a historic downtown stretch of the Seine near the Eiffel Tower.

Marathon swimming races over 10 kilometres for women and men are scheduled on Aug. 8 and 9, respectively, in waters that were historically polluted before a $1.5 billion US investment ahead of the Olympics

The safety of the Seine water for the Olympics has been in doubt since some test events scheduled last August were cancelled, also after unseasonal heavy rains.

Rainwater infiltrates the sewer system, and to prevent street flooding, the excess water, carrying fecal bacteria, is diverted into the Seine.

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