The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, eventually swam in the Seine on Wednesday to demonstrate the river is now clean enough for outdoor Olympic swimming events.
Wearing goggles and a wet suit, Anne Hidalgo swam breaststroke before immersing her face and beginning a front crawl, covering around 100 metres up and downstream.
The 65-year-old city leader was joined by senior local officials and by Tony Estanguet, a triple Olympic gold medallist in canoeing who heads the organising committee (IOC) for the Paris Games, which open next week on 26 July.
"Today is a confirmation that we are exactly where we meant to be, " Estanguet said. "We are now ready to organise the games in the Seine."
Despite an investment of 1.4 billion euros to prevent sewage leaks into the waterway, the state of the Seine has brought suspense to the build-up to the Paris Games.
The Seine is set to be used for the swimming leg of the Olympics triathlon on 30-31 July and 5 August, as well as the open-water swimming on 8-9 August.
But since the beginning of July, with heavy rain finally giving way to sunnier weather, samples have shown the river to be ready for the open-water swimming and the triathlon.
"On the eve of the Games, when the Seine will play a key role, this event represents the demonstration of the efforts made by the city and the state to improve the quality of the Seine's waters and the ecological state of the river," Hidalgo's office said on Tuesday.
Paris's mayor had originally planned to swim last month, but had to delay because bacteria indicating the presence of faecal matter were found to be sometimes 10 times higher than authorised limits.
(with newswires)
