Paris mayor takes pre-Olympics dip to prove Seine clean ahead of 2024 Games

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has taken a long-awaited swim in the murky waters of the Seine amid joy and relief that the river is finally clean enough for outdoor Olympic swimming events later this month. Wearing goggles and a wet suit, the 65-year-old city leader swam breaststroke under bright sunshine on Wednesday morning before immersing her face and beginning a front crawl, covering about 100 metres (about 110 yards) downstream. She was joined by senior local officials and chief organiser of the Paris Games, Tony Estanguet, a gold medal-winning canoeist who has been sweating on the state of the Seine before the opening of the games next week. The swimming leg of the Olympics triathlon is set to take place in its waters on July 30-31 and August 5, followed by the open-water swimming on August 8-9.