INTERNACIONAL
Paris mayor swims in Seine River to prove it's clean ahead of Olympic Games
- Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo swam in the long-polluted Seine River on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise to show the river was clean enough to host open Olympic swimming competitions.
- $1.5 billion has been invested in the Seine cleanup since 2015. A giant underground water storage basin was constructed in central Paris, sewer infrastructure was renovated, and wastewater treatment plants were upgraded.
- The Seine will host several open water swimming events during the Games, including marathon swimming at the Olympic Games and the swimming legs of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.
After months of anticipation, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip in the long-polluted Seine River on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise to show the river was clean enough to host open swimming competitions during the 2024 Olympics — and the opening ceremony on the river nine days away.
Clad in a wetsuit and goggles, Hidalgo plunged into the river near the imposing-looking City Hall, her office, and the Notre Dame Cathedral. Paris 2024 chief Tony Estanguet and the top government official for the Paris region, Marc Guillaume, joined her, along with swimmers from local swimming clubs.
«The Seine is exquisite,» said Hidalgo from the water. After emerging, she continued to rave, «The water is very, very good. A little cool, but not so bad.» She also said today was «a dream» and a «testimony that we have achieved a lot of work,» referencing the city’s «swimming plan» that was launched in 2015.
PARIS MAYOR CONFIDENT RIVER SEINE’S WATER QUALITY GOOD ENOUGH FOR OLYMPIC SWIMMING
They swam down the river for about 100 meters, switching between crawl and breaststroke.
«After twenty years of doing sports in the river, I find it admirable that we are trying to clean it up,» said Estanguet, who has three Olympic gold medals in canoeing.
It’s part of a broader effort to showcase the river’s improved cleanliness ahead of the Summer Games which will kick off July 26 with a lavish open-air ceremony that includes an athletes’ parade on boats on the Seine. Daily water quality tests in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements.
Swimming in the Seine has been banned for over a century. Since 2015, organizers have invested $1.5 billion to prepare the Seine for the Olympics and to ensure Parisians have a cleaner river after the Games. The plan included constructing a giant underground water storage basin in central Paris, renovating sewer infrastructure, and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
Originally planned for June, Hidalgo’s swim was postponed due to snap parliamentary elections in France. On the initial date, the hashtag «jechiedanslaSeine» («I’m pooping in the Seine») trended on social media as some threatened to protest the Olympics by defecating upstream.
That didn’t deter Hidalgo, who carefully entered the river Wednesday using a ladder on an artificial pond, set up for the event. Seven security boats were deployed for the occasion.
The upper banks were crowded with curious spectators.
«I wouldn’t have missed that for anything in the world,» said Lucie Coquereau, who woke up early to get the best view of Hidalgo’s up from the Pont de Sully bridge that oversees the swimming site.
Enzo Gallet, a competitive swimmer who has taken part in France’s national open-water championship, was among athletes invited to test the Seine alongside the Paris mayor.
The 23-year-old swam just a few meters from Hidalgo. «Her crawl form was pretty good,» he said, emerging from the water. «It’s pretty special to be among those who swam in the middle of Paris for the first time in a long, long time.»
After the officials had left the Seine river banks, many swimmers were still in the water, some playing catch with a ball and others practicing their dives from the artificial pond — all in a very festive mood.
Other politicians have promised to clean up the Seine. Jacques Chirac, the former French president, made a similar pledge in 1988 when he was Paris mayor, but it was never realized.
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Hidalgo followed in the footsteps of French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who swam in the Seine on Saturday wearing a full-body suit.
Concerns over the Seine’s flow and pollution levels have persisted, prompting daily water quality tests by the monitoring group Eau de Paris. Results in early June indicated unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, followed by recent improvements.
The Seine will host several open water swimming events during the Games, including marathon swimming at the Olympic Games and the swimming legs of the Olympic and Paralympic triathlons.
INTERNACIONAL
Israel opens tombs from Ancient Rome to the public for the first time: ‘wonderful paintings’
Tombs dating back to the ancient Roman era have been opened to the public for the first time after a meticulous restoration process, according to an announcement from the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The two tombs, estimated to be nearly 2,000 years old, were originally discovered by British archaeologists in the 1930s.
For nearly 100 years, the tombs were closed to the public to protect the paintings depicting vines, Roman deities, and mythological creatures.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNSEAL 2,000-YEAR-OLD TOMB, FIND MUMMY IN ‘EXCELLENT STATE’
The tombs, located in Ashkelon, Israel about 6 miles from the Gaza Strip, were ultimately renovated when the city decided to make the site an educational park for public visits.
They are located within a stones’ throw of the beach, and were likely a burial site for aristocratic Roman citizens in Ashkelon about 1,800 years ago.
«This tomb has wonderful paintings that were preserved remarkably well, and that’s surprising considering that the time that has passed and the location next to the sea, the humidity, the sand, the winds, everything affects the plaster and the paintings,» said Anat Rasiuk, an archaeologist with the Antiquities Authority to the Associated Press.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER UNDERWATER MOSAIC BELIEVED TO DATE BACK TO ROMAN EMPIRE
The murals depict birds, children picking bunches of grapes, nymphs with lotus plants, and figures from Greek mythology that were adopted by the Romans like the head of Medusa and Demeter, the goddess of the harvest.
Some of the lime-based plaster paintings were removed from the tombs’ walls and taken off-site for restoration, where others were painstakingly cleaned and given touch-ups that look the same as the ancient pigment on-site.
The new educational park in Ashkelon will feature more archeological discoveries from ancient Roman times from around the city, like wine and olive presses and ancient sarcophaguses.
Another tomb discovered in the 1990s has been relocated to the educational park site and preserved, also featuring similar murals.
Ashkelon was not just a Roman city, but also a Philistine one prior to that. Cemeteries discovered in the city date back to the early Iron Age, about 3,000 years ago.
Rockets in the early days of the war against Hamas affected Ashkelon, and materials from the U.S.-built pier ultimately beached on the coast of the Israeli city after some bad weather in early May.
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The Israel Antiquities Authority did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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