French President Emmanuel Macron promised Thursday that he would take a swim in the Seine, part of efforts to highlight how the river has been cleaned up for the Paris Olympics.
"You bet I will," Macron told reporters with a smile when asked if he would swim in the river Seine, which the city has promised to make clean enough for swimming by 2025.
"I will do it," he said. "But I won't give you the date, or you risk being there," he quipped, before giving a wink, as he attended a ceremony to inaugurate the 2024 Olympic village in northern Paris.
The keys to the 52-hectare village, just north of Paris along the Seine, were officially handed to the Olympics organizers. It will host some 14,500 athletes and their staff before welcoming 9,000 for the Paralympics.
French authorities are in a race against time to improve the water quality of the Seine which is set to be used for open-water swimming and the triathlon during the July 26-Aug. 11 Olympics.
They have spent 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) upgrading sewage and stormwater treatment facilities in the Paris region to improve the water quality of the Seine as well as its major tributary, the Marne.
But three test events in the Seine last year had to be canceled because of elevated readings of E.Coli, a bacteria found in human waste, and heavy rainfall prior to the Olympics could result in the events being canceled, organizers concede.
Macron is not the first French politician to promise to swim in the Seine. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she would do so more than three decades after her predecessor Jacques Chirac famously promised to do it "in the presence of witnesses" but never did.
The mayor's office plans to create three public bathing areas on the river after the Olympics, making it legal to swim in the Seine for the first time since it was banned in 1923.
"For people in the Paris region, we will have the Seine and Marne which will have changed in image and use," Macron added, calling it "an important legacy" of the Games.
The Seine will play a central role during the Paris Olympics, with national sports teams set to sail down the historic waterway during an opening ceremony being planned for July 26.
Organizers had a fright earlier this month when a tourist boat collided with one of its bridges, causing structural damage that has led to part of it being closed to traffic.
"There's no risk of us being unable to strengthen the bridge before the ceremony," Deputy Mayor Pierre Ramadan told Agence France-Presse (AFP) earlier this week, referring to the Sully bridge near the Ile Saint-Louis.
Macron, 46, has previously played football, tennis and boxed in public and is hoping that the Olympics will spark an uptick in sporting activities across France.
After the Games, the village will be turned into an eco-friendly neighborhood benefiting 6,000 residents and featuring two schools, a hotel, a public park, shops, and offices, plus planted areas for pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles.
"Our athletes will be able to experience the Games in the best conditions and you contributed to changing the lives of the people in the area," Macron said.
He hailed France as a "nation of builders."
"What has been done on time and within budget as we finalize the reconstruction of Notre Dame is nothing short of remarkable," Macron added.
Notre-Dame is set to reopen for religious services and to the public on Dec. 8 this year, the cathedral having been renovated after being ravaged by fire in 2019.
