The Seine case is closed:the Olympic races are held in the Paris river

The competitions of the Paris Olympics ultimately take place in the Seine, as promised by the organizers.But there was no shortage of twists and turns.You can find some of them here.

• After several postponements, the first scheduled races finally took place in the Seine.
• Paris has invested a lot of resources and money to make its river swimmable again.
• After the opening ceremony the waters were polluted again, but now the problem it seems Resolved.

First no, then maybe yes, then no again, now the official green light has arrived after days of waiting and anxiety on the part of the athletes.In the Seine, the river of Paris, the triathlon and cross-country swimming competitions will take place, as promised by the organizers.

The possibility of holding the competitions in the waters of the Parisian river was one of the big question marks of these Paris Olympics, but in the end the tests carried out this morning, 31 July, gave a positive result and therefore the women's triathlon race took the away with the athletes who threw themselves into the river.Then it will be the men's turn.

Choose the Seine as a backdrop for the competitions was a project in which the organizers and French institutions invested heavily - over 1 billion euros - and whose aim was not only to offer a unique overview of the Olympic competitions, but also to give back to the Parisians the possibility of bathing in their historic river.

Before the Games, the analyzes on the state of health of the river were found to be up to standard, but after the opening ceremony the level of pollution in the waters had returned beyond the safety threshold:for this reason, the training sessions scheduled for Monday were suspended, as was the men's triathlon race scheduled for Tuesday, which was postponed to the following day.

How the idea of ​​reclaiming the Seine was born

Since 2015, when Paris began planning its bid to host the Olympics, the organizers of the Games have decided to focus on a project as fascinating as it is complex to implement:make the Seine swimmable again and use it not only as a backdrop for the opening ceremony, but above all to hold some competitions.

The Paris river has been unsuitable for swimming for over 100 years, the first bathing ban dates back to 1923;over the decades various municipal administrations have promised to resolve the situation, but never arrived at a solution.The problem of the Seine is linked to the large presence in its waters of worrying and confirmed numbers of Escherichia coli (E.coli, fecal bacteria) which, if ingested, can cause intestinal and bladder problems, as well as intestinal trauma, colon tumors and meningitis.

A very delicate and dangerous situation, but such was the desire to put the river at the center of the Olympic spotlight that the organizing committee spent 1.4 billion of euros to design a water cleaning system and bring the values ​​of these bacteria within the limits, which are of 330 units of E.coli per 100 milliliters of water. Starting from a state of 900 units, therefore well beyond the safety threshold.

For months, theories and speculation have swirled about whether Paris could actually clean up the Seine in time for the Olympics:there were those who argued that it was too complex a project, while a certain optimism continued to shine through from the organizers.With just over a month left until the start of the Olympics, the tests continued to show a situation very far from that desired by the organizers.

However, on July 17, just ten days before the start of the Games, the turning point arrived:the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is filmed while diving into the Seine to testify that the waters are finally safe.

“It took four years of work and we did it!”, said Hidalgo.“It was such a huge challenge that we had to join forces to do it,” exulted the mayor, adding that from 2025 the Seine will also become suitable for swimming for all the citizens of Paris.

The rain and the opening ceremony

When everything seemed to be resolved and ready for the Olympics, here is the factor that no one expected and that changed everything:there rain.During the opening ceremony in Paris it rains heavily, a meteorological phenomenon that alters the river levels and brings the waters of the Seine back beyond the safety threshold necessary to guarantee the smooth running of the races.

The waters of the Seine, in its Parisian stretch, are profoundly influenced by what arrives from outside the city through its major tributary, the Marne;in addition to this, what determines the state of pollution of the river are the atmospheric temperatures and its flow rate, all factors altered by heavy rains and central in encouraging whether or not the presence of the bacterium in the Seine.

While waiting for good news, the organizers could not do anything other than first suspend training and then postpone the competition for one day. triathlon male.

If conditions didn't improve, there were only options eliminate swimming from competition and then calculate only the results obtained in running and cycling;while for cross-country swimming, transfer the races to Vaires sur Marne, already home to canoeing and rowing competitions, about 35 kilometers east of Paris.In both cases, an indelible stain on the pride of the French organizers.

Meanwhile, there remains the great intolerance experienced in recent days by athletes who have entered the Seine to compete without ever having had the opportunity to train in its waters, a factor that is not secondary considering the natural difference in terms of temperature and currents between river waters and those of a swimming pool.

Discontent expressed very clearly by one of the greatest cross-country swimmers in the world, the Italian Gregorio Paltrinieri, fresh from bronze in the 800 freestyle, who strongly criticized the choice to focus so much on the Seine for the races:“There are no conditions for swimming and I am very worried.You cannot organize such an important race in a place that has never been tested before", stated Paltrinieri who then also commented on the symbolic bath taken by the mayor of Paris, calling it a "mockery" and something not comparable to the context of the race, given that the mayor only immersed herself for a few moments while they will have to swim for several minutes and cover a distance of ten kilometres.

In the end, however, the races will take place in the Seine.And this whole affair already belongs to the history of the Paris Olympics, and beyond.