The decision of Paris to include the Seine in the Olympic Games has caused a headache for the Organizing Committee and the IOC and of course fear for the athletes and their teams as the contamination of the river that passes through the French capital, a trademark of the city, was a given, while swimming has been banned for a century. Besides, during the games, the cancellations of trainings and games continue since many factors, such as a rain for example, are capable of making it unsafe and contaminated.
For their part, the athletes who are invited to swim in its waters live constantly under threat. Despite the fact that they are given preventive medicine, there was no shortage of cases that are sometimes named, sometimes not. One of the examples is Claire Michel, a Belgian triathlete at the Paris Olympics, who after her participation in the Seine swim became seriously ill and is being treated in hospital with an infection caused by the E. coli bacteria. And she’s not the only one!
The dream of cleaning it is not current as President Jacques Chirac, as early as 1990, had announced that “in three years from today I will be diving in the Seine.” Neither he did nor the current Emmanuel Macron despite the 1.4 billion euros that according to what is said was allocated for his cleaning. The only one who made the spectacular dive, perhaps of her own volition, was the Mayor of Paris to demonstrate the one way ahead of the Olympic Games.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo emerges from the Seine River after a swim, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Paris. After months of anticipation, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo took a dip in the Seine River on Wednesday, fulfilling a promise she made months ago to show the river is clean enough to host open swimming events during its Olympics. 2024 — and the opening ceremony on the river nine days away. (Joel Saget, Pool via AP)
Panagiotis Halvatsiotis, Associate Professor of Pathology at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, spoke about the issue on the Newsroom show regarding the health risks of athletes, since they compete in swimming sports in the Seine River.
“Swimming in the Seine was forbidden for a hundred years, because it was a toxic environment” and despite the various investments that have been made from time to time with mainly drainage works and water reservoirs, it remains extremely dangerous for public health, he says characteristically.
As he explains, “the Seine is a continuous river and even a single rainfall can bring sewage that was not there”, making him unsuitable for any competition. He continues his scientific position by saying how “We have a focus of public health problems, like any river in a big city that also carries bacteria such as colibacter or various viruses, parasites, but also from the areas it drains it brings insecticides, fertilizers, pharmaceutical derivatives, nitrites, phosphates, plastics, maybe and radioactive, as well as sewage from the sewers”.
The International Olympic Committee seems to “whistling nonchalantly” regarding the issue that has troubled the world community and as stated by P. Halvatsiotis, he is satisfied only with the daily calculation of the colibacter content of the water. The occasional postponement of the matches for the next few days occurs because the value of the water’s bacteria content suddenly rises. The Associate Professor of Pathology at the Greek University of Athens stresses, however, that the health of those who swim in the Seine is not guaranteed by taking into account only the content of coliform and virus colonies in the water. “There are a number of other toxic substances and by-products from the areas that the river drains that can be dangerous for skin reactions, for allergies,” points out, even warning of health problems that may appear in the future due to swimming in toxic waters.
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