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British marathon swimmers Hector Pardoe and Toby Robinson praised the attempt to clean the River Seine for the Paris Olympics and urged the UK Government to follow France’s lead with its own waterways.
Swimming in the Seine has been largely banned for the last century because of the toxic water quality but French authorities have spent 1.4 billion euros (£1.2 billion) trying to repair some of the damage.
While there have been teething problems at the Olympics amid worries about harmful bacteria, all events slated to take place there have gone ahead, culminating with the men’s 10km marathon swim on Friday.
But across the Channel, the permit breaches of sewage-dumping water companies have reached a three-year high, which Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson Tim Farron called a “national scandal” on Friday.
Pardoe said: “There was a lot of negativity about the Seine before the Olympics. At least they have tried; they have spent £1.2 billion on this clean-up project so bravo to them for doing it.
“I think this is going to be Paris 2024’s legacy. It is amazing they have been able to clean it up and all the races have gone ahead, both triathlons, mixed relay and both the open water races.
“It sets a really good precedent for the rest of European nations to clean up the rivers and hopefully we can follow it in the UK because we have got a massive way to go to even get close to what France have done here.”
You don’t really taste e.coli or whatever. I’m not a connoisseur for that.— Hector Pardoe
Pardoe admitted he would have to take precautionary antibiotics after his sixth-place finish in his race, which featured six laps of the Seine against a stunning backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.
Several familiarisation training sessions were cancelled and the men’s triathlon pushed back by a day, with heavy rain at the start of the Games thought to raise the levels of harmful E.coli bacteria.
The triathlon mixed relay went ahead on Monday without the Belgian team, who withdrew after athlete Claire Michel fell ill having competed in the women’s race, finishing 38th, the previous Wednesday.
But Pardoe said: “You don’t really taste E.coli or whatever. I’m not a connoisseur for that. It was all right. The water quality felt fine.”
Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky upgraded his Tokyo 2020 silver to gold on Friday morning, with Pardoe finishing almost a minute back, having faded in the final half lap.
Robinson, who came home in 14th, said: “This is a great thing: water quality in the news. Paris has managed to do a big effort in cleaning up this water, why can’t we do this back in Britain?
“Imagine if we can get swimmers swimming in the Thames, that would be an amazing experience. That shows why sport is such a good thing for change, we can get things done with sport.
“The world should look at Paris cleaning up the Seine and take action in their own waterways.”
