Rogue swimmers reject Seine pollution fears as Olympic swimmers prepare to take the plunge

Swimmers leap into the Seine at Île Saint-Denis in July 2023. © Geoffroy Van der Hasselt, AFP

While the 2024 Olympics will stage events in the Seine river from the ornate Alexandre III bridge, a proud declaration of the waterway's environmental renewal, many swimmers in the capital are already defying decades-long bans to take the plunge. 

Fears over pollution and safety led to a ban on swimming in the Seine and the Paris canals in 1923, though application of the rules has been relaxed in recent years.